


By Azura, They were Roommates!

by TonalModulator



Series: Clockwork Consort [1]
Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Elder Scrolls Online
Genre: ADHD Divayth Fyr, Anal Sex, Artaeum, Autistic Sotha Sil, Blow Jobs, College of Psijics, Cuddling & Snuggling, First Kiss, First Time, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Gray-Asexual Divayth Fyr, Love Confessions, M/M, Oral Sex, Psijic Order, Rough Sex, Sleeping Together, Teasing, Trans Male Character, appearances from Almalexia and Sotha Nall, clear consent, demisexual Sotha Sil, post-sex cuddling, pre-Battle of Red Mountain, pre-First Council, psijic lore, trans Divayth Fyr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2020-05-19 07:01:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19351861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TonalModulator/pseuds/TonalModulator
Summary: Sotha Sil and Divayth Fyr, the only two Chimer at the prestigious College of Psijics, find themselves rooming together. They quickly become close friends, and eventually more.





	1. Arrival on Artaeum

It was a beautiful day when Divayth Fyr arrived on Artaeum, the island where he would be doing his studies at the College of Psijics. Though this last leg had been just a short boat ride from Auridon, the whole journey from the Grazelands of Vvardenfell had been exhausting. He was glad that he would be on solid ground for a while.

He took in the scenery as he made his way to the dorms. The sun shone on the lush fields where deer leapt and sheep grazed among the tall grass and flowers. A stream flowed throughout the island, with waterfalls at the edge of each tier until it ultimately reached the sea. Ancient buildings dotted the land, some Altmer in design, others looking to date further back, to the Dawn Era or perhaps earlier, if that was possible. It was just as idyllic as everyone had said.

 _So very Altmeri,_ Divayth mused. _I can see the appeal, but I'd take Resdayn's mushrooms and ever-looming threat of annihilation any day._

He was now approaching the College's dormitory. He entered the building and found his way to his assigned room. The door listed his name and one other: Sotha Sil, a name he recognized as belonging to a mer around his age, the heir to House Sotha. Another Chimer.

He entered the room to see that his new roommate had not only arrived, but had already unpacked and was sitting on his bed, reading a book. The mer hopped off the bed when he noticed Divayth enter.

"Greetings, ceruval," the mer said in accented Aldmeris. He bowed politely as he spoke, and then brushed away the long strands of dark hair that had fallen in front of his face. "I'm Sil. You're Divayth, I assume?"

"I am. Greetings, serjo," Divayth replied in Chimeris, returning the bow.

Sil laughed at the pointed code switch and followed suit. "Fair enough; I can't imagine it was an accident that the two Chimer ended up together."

"They're afraid of us using our Boethian charms to lure away any more 'Aldmer,' no doubt," Divayth deadpanned.

He glanced around the room. "When did you arrive? You look like you've already settled in."

"A few days ago, actually. I tend to need a little extra time to get adjusted to new settings, and they were willing to accommodate..." He seemed faintly uncomfortable with the topic. "Anyway, can I help you unpack?"

* * *

It was almost dark by the time they were done.

"Are you hungry?" Sil asked. "The dining hall is just around the corner. We could get dinner together, if you'd like."

Divayth agreed, and so they began to make their way to the dining hall.

"Have you had Altmeri food before?" Sil asked as they walked.

"I can't say that I have."

"It's a big change from Resdayn's ash-cultivated fare, but I've found it surprisingly agreeable. There's a lot of fruit, honey, meat from farm animals and fish. No scrib jelly, unfortunately, and the eggs come from birds. It's basically what you'd expect from a lush archipelago. I think you'll get used to it quickly."

The entrance to the dining hall was covered by what looked like a magical barrier. Sil placed his finger on a rune on the doorway, which lit up at his touch.

"Have you encountered this system yet?" Sil asked.

Divayth shook his head.

"It's fascinating. You just touch it with a tiny pulse of magicka, and it uses that to identify you."

Divayth touched the rune, and sure enough, it lit up and the barrier vanished.

Sil continued as they stepped inside, "Apparently it can even adjust for changing magicka signatures over time, in the same way that we can still identify people by their faces as they age."

"Fascinating indeed," Divayth said, genuinely impressed by both the system and by his new friend's knowledge of it. "I noticed the barrier stayed up until I had pressed the rune. Does it detect the whole party and only release once everyone has been identified? Or does it somehow release on a per-person basis?"

"Hmm..." Sil's brow furrowed as he considered the question. "You didn't see it release for me? Perhaps it is on a per-person basis, then...Let's get more data!"

He exited the hall to reset the barrier, followed by Divayth.

"You go first this time," Sil instructed.

Divayth pressed the rune, and the barrier vanished once again. "It's gone," he said.

"And yet I can still see it." Sil approached the barrier and placed a hand against it. "Yes, it's definitely still there. Not an illusion. Can you walk through it?"

Divayth did.

Sil pressed the rune and followed Divayth in.

"Truly fascinating," he said. "How do they manage that? I would have thought that a barrier could either be present or absent, not both simultaneously."

He turned abruptly to Divayth with an apologetic smile and said, "I don't mean to perseverate on this. I sometimes forget that not everyone is interested in the minutiae of whatever phenomenon has caught my attention."

"Please, perseverate on," Divayth said. "I'm very interested."

Sil relaxed and smiled. Divayth found himself wondering with a pang of sadness what sorts of prolonged experiences had led Sil to guard against displaying that genuine enthusiasm that he had been finding so endearing.

They continued their conversation throughout the meal, back to their room, and well into the night. Sil was delighted to find that his roommate seemed willing not only to listen to his detailed theories, but also to engage with them, challenge them, and propose his own. It was an altogether new feeling. Back in Ald Sotha, no one was so willing to talk with him. His sister Nall was definitely the most tolerant, but even she would just politely listen, and he always felt a bit guilty, like he was bothering her and she was just too nice to say anything.

Divayth ultimately interrupted the conversation with some reluctance. "As much as I'm enjoying our talk, I think my brain has just about shut down for the night. And I'd hate to be late to our first day of classes. Can we get some sleep and continue tomorrow?"

Sil, who had already wrapped himself in a blanket a couple hours earlier, agreed. He was overjoyed that Divayth had even suggested continuing the conversation later.

They bid each other good night and each curled up in their respective beds. Despite the strange new setting, so far from home, they were both comforted by the promising new friendship they had found in each other.


	2. They snuggle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've never seen a mention of when the school year begins in Tamriel, so I decided it started in Sun's Height, the season of the Apprentice.
> 
> Also I've updated the rating to T because this feels a bit intimate for G.

By early Frostfall, a few months into their studies, Sotha Sil and Divayth Fyr had developed a sense of routine and had more or less adjusted to life on Artaeum at the College. They were relaxing after a week of exams, which for both of them meant studying something unrelated to their coursework. They had come to take comfort in each other's presence, valuing their time together even when it was spent across the room from each other, each working quietly on their own things.

In this case, Sil was sitting on his bed reading a book, and Divayth was at his desk with several books open in front of him, some of which were levitating. He was actively switching between them with a pensive expression, and would occasionally toss a book from his desk into the air, where it would stay floating, while he pulled another one from the air back down to his desk to take its place.

"Hmm...really? But what about...Ahh! Oh, that is clever," Divayth said to himself as he read. He looked up from his books, planning on calling for Sil's attention, to find that his friend was already looking expectantly at him with an amused smile.

"Ah, sorry, I suppose my monologues must get bothersome," he said, smiling apologetically.

"Not at all," Sil said. In truth, he loved seeing his friend get so wrapped up in a topic. It was, he admitted to himself, kind of cute.

Divayth blushed slightly, as though he could sense Sil's concession, but continued on. "Remember that discussion we had the other day about the disparities that arise among different translations from Ehlnofex? I consulted a couple more perspectives, and I think I've found something interesting. Can I show you?"

"Of course," Sil said, setting his book down.

Divayth picked up five books and carried them to Sil's bed, where he tossed them down before climbing up (while grumbling about how they must have made the loft beds without thinking about short mer, and apparently forgetting that he'd never had an issue ascending his hometown's mushroom towers) and plunking himself down right in front of Sil, with his back to him so that Sil could see the books in front of them.

Sil suddenly found himself a little flustered, though he couldn't quite articulate why. This sort of closeness was relatively normal in Chimeri culture. He decided that it must be the "polite" Altmeri culture rubbing off on him, and he pushed the feeling aside. Instead, while Divayth was getting situated, Sil became fixated on the mer's hair. It was reddish-gold, but gentle in tone, as if touched by ash, contrasting nicely with his rich golden skin. And it looked incredibly soft. Sil wanted to touch it.

"Can I play with your hair while we talk?" he asked.

Divayth turned to look at him with a questioning expression. Sil shrugged. "I like to keep my hands occupied. It helps me think." It wasn't even a lie.

Divayth chuckled and gave his consent before turning back to the books. Sil carefully removed the hair tie and began to run his fingers through his friend's hair. It was just as soft as it looked. After a few moments of this while they discussed Ehlnofex scholarship, Sil switched to braiding and unbraiding the hair. Between the tactile sensation and the repetition, it was very soothing.

This became a habit for the two of them: whenever they would have their theoretical discussions, Divayth would come sit in front of Sil, and Sil would play with his hair. Over time, they grew more comfortable and allowed themselves more casual contact. But as much as he loved it, Sil also realized that it was getting harder and harder to concentrate. It was strange. Normally, he really could focus better when his hands were occupied, but it seemed now that all he could think about was the contact between them. And when he did pull his focus back to the conversation, he would eventually notice that he had reverted to just running his hands through Divayth's hair rather than braiding it. He didn't dare stop, though, because he knew Divayth loved it too. He just had to try harder to stay attentive and not let this feeling take over.

The attempt didn't last long. The next time they were sitting together, it was to talk about the applications of soul gems—a topic of great interest to Sil. He began with the hair-braiding as usual, but quickly became engrossed in the conversation. He was leaning in and resting his head on Divayth's shoulder, as was normal by then, but he had completely lost track of what his hands were doing.

Then Divayth commented, "Hm, that's new."

Sil looked at him with a raised eyebrow, waiting for him to elaborate.

"You've decided to move past my hair?"

And suddenly Sil realized that he had been idly tracing patterns on Divayth's back. "Sorry! So, so sorry," he rambled, immediately dropping his hands and sitting upright. "I should, uh, give you space...We can sit next to each other if that's better...Oh, by Azura, I'm so sorry—"

"Hey, come back," Divayth said when Sil started shifting away. He picked up Sil's hand and gently pulled him back to his original position, and then placed the hand back on his head and turned back to the books in front of them. "I wasn't complaining, anyway," he added in a mumble.

But Sil found it hard to bring his focus back to the conversation. He was mostly overcome with embarrassment, and the rest of his energy was put to use pondering what Divayth could have meant with his last comment.

"Anyway, it's getting late," Divayth said after a few minutes, apparently detecting Sil's distraction. He cast telekinesis with a swing of his arm, and somehow the books all landed neatly in a stack on his desk.

He stretched and yawned, and then leaned into Sil's hand that was still playing with his hair. "Why must you tempt me?" he asked.

"Tempt you?"

"You're making me want to stay here forever."

"Do you want me to stop?" Sil asked reluctantly. In truth, he too would have been happy to never have to get up.

"Absolutely not."

Sil couldn't help but smile.

Then Divayth turned to the side so that he could rest his head on Sil's chest. "Do that thing again," he instructed.

Sil froze for a moment, and then cautiously began running his fingers along Divayth's back again, tracing patterns of nothing in particular.

"Yep, that." Divayth nuzzled in further against Sil's chest and wrapped his arms around him.

After a while, Sil realized that Divayth had fallen asleep. He was simultaneously heartened by the notion that his friend—his _crush_ —felt so safe around him, and terrified of doing anything that might ruin it. He sat there for a while longer. Eventually, he cast telekinesis to take the blanket from Divayth's bed, taking care not to disturb the sleepy mer on his chest, and covered them both with it. Then he extinguished the lights and lay down, taking in the comfort and trust and safety he felt between them, until he too fell asleep.


	3. They kiss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This whole chapter is based on the idea that those grand hand movements that Psijics do when casting are a Thing (that I'll refer to as "Motions"), and that there are different ones for different purposes, and that part of Psijic spellweaving is learning how and when to use them.
> 
> Anyway this is corny af and I hope you like it.

Sil cast muffle as he approached his room after the day's classes, and opened the door as quietly as he could. His roommate had stayed in with a cold, and he didn't want to risk waking him if he was sleeping. Once he was inside, however, he saw Divayth awake and sitting up in bed, though his reading was limited to a mere two levitating books.

"Feeling any better?" Sil asked.

Divayth shrugged. "A little, I suppose. I just woke up a few minutes ago. I definitely needed the sleep."

"Good thing you stayed in, then."

Divayth nodded in agreement. "How was Projection? Did I miss anything important?"

Sil cringed. "Actually, yes. We finally got to learn some Motions."

Divayth sighed dramatically. "Naturally, the one sort of thing I can't learn in a book."

"Don't worry, though," Sil reassured him. "I can help you catch up when you're feeling better."

* * *

That Turdas, when Divayth was over his cold, the two decided to have their study session. They stood facing each other, with Sil's notebook floating to his side for quick reference.

Sil explained, "Most Motions are used in specific types of spells, but this first one is more of a building block for a lot of other ones. It's called the 'Basic Motion.' It's for starting to channel the flow of magicka. Ready?"

Divayth nodded. Sil performed the Motion, with Divayth closely watching his hands. Divayth started to copy it, but fumbled partway through.

"Show me again, slower?"

Sil repeated the Motion more slowly while Divayth tried to copy him as he went, but he stumbled again, reversing the directions of the movements a few times before giving up.

"Agh, maybe it's for the best that I wasn't in class. I have a reputation to uphold, and I can't have everyone knowing that I can't handle un-mirroring movements," he said. He turned around and backed up to Sil so that they could perform the Motions together without worrying about reversing directions. Yes, it was also a blatant move to get closer to Sil, but he was careful to build in some plausible deniability just in case anything should go wrong. "Can we do it this way?"

Sil was thrown off by their sudden proximity, but he managed to say, "Yes, definitely," though a little weaker than intended. He cleared his throat. "Ready to try again?"

They did the Motion together this time, and Divayth managed with much less difficulty than before. They continued through the list.

"This one takes two targets. It's for spells that relate two distinct objects somehow. So you might use it in spells of merging or conveyance." Sil conjured two ethereal rocks to act as targets, and then readied his hands and began the Motion. "So it's...Basic motion, target first, target second...wait, that's not right."

He waved a dispersal and turned to his notes.

"Ah, forget what I said! It's not for merging. Merging's a different one." He turned the page in his notebook. "And it's not conveyance, either; conveyance only takes one true target, _obviously_ ," he said, mostly to himself. "So then, what in Oblivion...Oh! Yes, of course. This one is for conduction. You know..." He waved his hands in what was clearly _not_ a Psijic Motion, but rather an attempt to find words. "Like for making energy flow between things! Does that make sense?"

"I think so," Divayth said.

Sil laughed nervously and brushed his hair out of his face. "I don't know why I'm such a mess right now," he said, which was a complete lie. "Anyway, onto the next one?"

"Would you mind showing me that last one?" Divayth asked.

"Right! Yes, I never did, did I? Sorry about that," he laughed again out of discomfort and silently praised Azura that Divayth couldn't see his face, which was undoubtedly a deep shade of red. He took a deep breath. "Okay. So it's Basic Motion, target first, target second..." his description trailed off as he finished the Motion.

They made their way through the rest of the lesson, with most demonstrations going more smoothly.

"And that's all of them," Sil said finally.

"Really?" Divayth asked, turning around to face Sil. "I was sure there was one more."

"Was there?" Sil asked, flipping through his notes. "I don't think—"

"No, I'm sure of it. It takes one target—it's another conveyance one. Information conveyance, though, not physical conveyance. It's used for imparting an emotion, to be specific."

Sil was now thoroughly confused. "I don't think we learned that one..."

"No? Strange. Well, no matter. I can show you." Divayth levitated a few inches to be at eye level with Sil. "I think it was something like this..."

He did the Basic Motion, twirled his arms around for show and placed them around Sil's neck, and kissed him.

Sil could have sworn he was the one levitating. He wrapped his arms around Divayth's waist and returned the kiss, but jumped at the sound of his notebook hitting the floor.

He laughed when he identified the source of the noise. "I guess I lost focus on my spell."

"Can't imagine how that happened."

Sil was well aware that he was blushing again, but completely unfazed this time. "Anyway...I think that's one I could use some practice with. Would you mind?"

"I would be happy to help."

And so they kissed again, and kept kissing for what could have been several minutes or several hours, but never felt like long enough. They kissed to learn the feel of each other's lips in gentle meeting, and in hungry passion, and parted their lips to learn the feel of each other's tongues as they joined in this new dance. They paused to look on each other's faces to see the utter happiness of a longing fulfilled, and they kissed again. They learned of each other's scents, of how they breathe and how their heart beats when they're excited. They learned the way their hands would feel as they passed through their new partner's hair, along their neck, over their shoulders, down their back, on their waist, on their hips, and back to center. And they kissed just to kiss, because they liked each other, and they liked kissing each other, and they both knew it, and they were both so, so happy just to kiss.


	4. A moment of vulnerability

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since this chapter is basically a frank discussion about sex with some very direct flirting mixed in, I'm upping the rating from T to M.
> 
> Also I've always taken "Divayth Fyr has four daughters who are clones of himself" to be saying about as almost-explicitly as possible that Divayth is trans.
> 
> The chapter's title comes from Divayth's line in dialogue with the Vestige in ESO's Clockwork City DLC: "Surely you won't begrudge me a moment of vulnerability" (which I think about A Lot).

Sil and Divayth were sitting on the former's bed just to be close while they studied independently. Such had been their habit of late; ever since they first kissed, they had stopped waiting until they had a topic of magical theory to discuss (or making one up, something they were both guilty of) to have an excuse spend time together.

Although Sil normally held his books himself, he currently had his book levitating next to him so that he could keep both arms around Divayth as he read. Divayth, too, had just one book out, a rare occurrence to him. Sil also noticed that it was strangely quiet in the room—his boyfriend wasn't doing his usual thought-monologue while reading. This led Sil to the conclusion that he wasn't actually reading.

"Something on your mind?" Sil asked, running a hand through Divayth's hair.

"Hm?" Divayth looked up, as though he was just pulled from being deep in thought. "Oh, nothing," he said, waving his hand in dismissal.

Sil simply kept petting his hair.

"Well...maybe. I suppose I was just thinking about...If it's not too presumptuous, could we talk about sex?"

"I wouldn't say it's presumptuous at all," Sil said. He sent his book to the nightstand, while Divayth threw his at his desk haphazardly and cast telekinesis to get it to land safely. "Anything in particular?"

Divayth turned around to face Sil. "Well, for one thing, I don't know if you've just been polite and haven't asked about the spell I keep on my chest, or if you actually haven't noticed, but either way it should probably be discussed."

"The former, I suppose?" Sil said. "I noticed it a while ago, but I assumed you'd bring it up if you wanted to talk about it."

"Did you happen to detect its purpose?"

"Not magically. I didn't want to probe it without asking."

"That sounds like you did figure it out through more mundane means."

"I thought I remembered a Fyr from spring magic workshops growing up. And between the spell on your chest and the fact that you've never mentioned having a twin sister with a magical aptitude equal to your own, I arrived at what seemed like a reasonable conclusion."

"Ah. Well. That went easier than expected," Divayth said, looking relieved. "On the topic of sex, then, since I don't have an analogous charm on the lower half, you'll just have to pretend there's a gate to Coldharbour between my legs. As they say, the wise mer never puts their penis in a gate to Coldharbour."

"Is that what they say?" Sil laughed.

"It is. It's right there in _The Book of Daedra_ ," Divayth said, also laughing now.

"I'll be sure to remember that."

Divayth was delighted to be reminded how cute his boyfriend was when he laughed, and he leaned in and placed a kiss on his lips. Then he sat back and took on a more thoughtful expression. "Now, it does change the logistics somewhat," he said. "To be blunt, are you comfortable with being on top? Because I certainly can't fill that role."

Sil nodded. "I think that would have been my preference anyway."

"You _think_. Hmm...some insight into the history of Serjo Sotha," Divayth teased. "Is this unexplored territory for you too, then?"

"Not entirely," Sil said, his tone indicating that he was willing to entertain further discussion.

Divayth climbed into his lap and wrapped one arm around him, using the other to play with his hair. "Tell me more."

"Hmm...I've had some experience with a friend. It wasn't even particularly romantic in nature. That's not to suggest that it was a lust-fueled fling, mind you, because it was far from it. Rather more like...practicing?"

"'Practicing?'" Divayth asked. "No one has practice sex."

"One does when one's friend expects to have to wield the Boethian ways in Mournhold's court."

"Ah, how altruistic of you," Divayth teased. Then his expression changed to one of curiosity. "Mournhold's court? Who was this friend?" He now had both arms around Sil, fully invested in the unraveling mystery.

"I'm sure I've said far too much already," Sil said with a faint smirk. "She would kill me for revealing that she needed to practice. Honestly, I'm surprised she hasn't killed me already just to be safe."

"Oh, you can't do that!" Divayth said indignantly, though he was laughing anyway. He stared off into space as he considered the possible identity of Sil's mysterious past friend-lover. "Let's see...clearly a noble...of Mournhold...Someone our age?" Sil nodded. "Our age...Wait a moment." He snapped his vision back into focus and pointed an accusative finger at Sil, and booped his nose for good measure. "Haven't you mentioned being friends with Lady Almalexia?"

Sil shrugged with a feigned innocence. "Have I?"

"Mephala's _legs_ , Sil! Have you really fucked Indoril Almalexia?"

Sil laughed. "On Mephala's legs, I have."

Divayth flopped off his lap and onto the bed with a loud but playful sigh of defeat. "Oh, why did I ask?"

"What's wrong?"

He sat partway up to look at Sil. "'What's _wrong_?'" He flopped back down and began gesticulating wildly. "She's so pretty! Tales of her beauty and charm are known all throughout Resdayn!" He let his arms fall back onto the bed. "I'm not going to be able to live up to your expectations." His voice revealed a hint of genuine concern, barely detectable under the theatrics.

"My dear," Sil said, moving so that he was on top of Divayth. He placed a line of kisses up the mer's neck and hovered at the top to softly speak in his ear, "You've no reason to worry. I am _incredibly_ attracted to you."

"That much I can tell," Divayth deadpanned, moving against Sil just enough to make it clear where he was getting his evidence.

Sil blushed and promptly sat up with Divayth still pinned under him. "You have an unfair advantage!" he said, as if he hadn't noticed his partner's subtler signals—the faint gasp at the touch of lips to his neck, how his heart had started beating faster.

Divayth laughed. "Indeed. Ah, I am so glad I don't have to worry about that."

"Fetcher." Sil tickled him. He shouted in surprise and laughed harder as he squirmed in a vain attempt to avoid Sil's hands. But Sil relented quickly and came back down to catch his lips in a kiss. "You'll have to forgive me if our conversation has given me ideas."

"Good ideas, I hope?" Divayth asked after he had caught his breath.

"You tell me."

"Certainly felt that way."

In a gentler voice, Sil asked, "So what are you worried about?"

"I still haven't exactly had any practice."

"You will."

Divayth smirked, but continued, "And until we become practiced experts? It's going to be clumsy and awkward."

Sil nodded and began running his fingers through Divayth's hair. "Probably. It's also going to be intimate"—he paused for another kiss—"and fun."

He rolled off of Divayth to lie next to him instead, and gently touched his face. "Don't worry yourself, my dear. When we get there, and we're both ready, it will be wonderful."

Divayth smiled, genuinely reassured. He wasn't used to showing vulnerability, and he wasn't quite sure what to do with the overwhelming feeling that came with being validated. So he pulled his boyfriend in for a long kiss, and then snuggled into his chest, holding onto him as tightly as he was holding onto his developing sense of trust, thinking that he could get used to this.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They return from a day trip to Auridon. They hang out in their underwear. Sotha Sil talks about Dwemer constructs. They keep hanging out, not in their underwear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi okay so a couple things:  
> \- So remember how I'm new at writing fanfic and also writing anything and stuff? Yeah...uh, enjoy, I hope?  
> \- Upping the rating to E for reasons that will become obvious if they're not already.  
> \- This is part of a series now!  
> \- Another fic in the series, "Barrier lessons with Valsirenn," takes place between chapters 3 and 5. The exact timing isn't super important. If you haven't read it and don't plan to, basically all you need to know is that barrier spells are being used as fantasy condoms.  
> \- There are a few references to conversations and stuff that happened in chapter 4, so if you're like "wait when did they say that," the answer is probably chapter 4.  
> \- Really I hope you enjoy this and that it isn't too terrible because I have no idea what I'm doing aaaaaaaa

Sil and Divayth returned to the dorm after spending the day on the nearby island of Auridon. The former was wearing a backpack that looked far too big for him to begin with, packed to an almost comical degree and making clanging sounds with each step. They did not usually travel on the weekends like many of their classmates, mostly because the main Isle of Summerset was not open to visitors. Auridon, however, had much laxer laws and allowed most non-Altmer to visit freely, and so the two had finally decided to spend the day there.

"Ugh, why do they keep this place so warm? I'm much too hot for these travel clothes," Divayth said as soon as they were inside. He immediately began stripping down to his underwear.

Sil resisted the urge to comment, instead simply saying, "Yes, it is rather warm, isn't it?"

Divayth cleared his throat and looked pointedly at him. "I _said_ , I'm _very hot_."

Apparently the comment was desired after all, and so Sil said, "You're always hot, my dear. Why aren't you in your underwear all the time?"

" _Thank_ you," Divayth said as he hopped up on his bed.

Sil laughed lightly and set his backpack down with a _clang_. "Actually, I'm a little warm myself. Would you mind if I...?"

"Joined me in my indecency?" Divayth laughed. "Not at all." In truth, the question came as somewhat of a relief. He had been worried that he was being too forward. Of course, being roommates, they had seen each other in their underwear plenty of times. But they had been more chaste about it since becoming involved, given its implications in the new context. And it was getting tiresome.

Divayth found his eyes following Sil as he undressed, but he kept the conversation going to prevent himself from getting too drawn in. "I didn't actually see what you bought that you managed to shove so much of into your pack."

Sil's face lit up. "Ooh, let me show you!" he said, yanking the pack up (with surprisingly defined arms, Divayth noticed—wasn't he supposed to be House Sotha's squishy mage?) and clanking it down on Divayth's bed before hopping up himself. He rubbed his shoulders with a grimace once he was situated. "As much as I enjoyed our trip, I think my muscles would object to doing it very often."

"Did you not feather your pack?"

Sil froze, apparently just now remembering that the feather spell exists.

"Sotha Sil," Divayth chided, "that backpack looks like it weighs _easily_ as much as you do, and you're telling me that you forgot to feather it?" Before Sil had a chance to defend himself, Divayth sighed. "Come here then," he patted the spot in front of him, instructing Sil to sit.

Sil obeyed, and Divayth placed his hands on his shoulders and began to examine them with Psijic projection. "Merciful Azura, have you ever relaxed in your life?" Sil didn't respond. Divayth sighed again and muttered, " _Honestly_ ," but powered his hands with some healing magicka and began massaging, pushing the magicka deep into the muscles. Sil quietly hummed a note of contentment at the relief, which caused Divayth's attention to slip somewhat, but he quickly returned to the task of healing the ailing shoulders in front of him. He found it ironically soothing, even though he was not the one who was meant to be soothed. It just made him happy to be helpful, especially to someone whose wellbeing he cared about so much.

When he felt that he had done all that could be done for Sil's shoulders, Divayth readied an analgesic spell in his lips. "You're going to be sore, but this should help," he said, placing a spell-infused kiss on each shoulder.

Sil turned around to face him with a grateful smile and lazily leaned in for one more non-infused kiss. Then he rested his head on Divayth's shoulder and asked, "Have you ever considered being a healer? You seem to have a knack for it."

Divayth laughed. "Nah. I don't exactly have the personality for it. Besides, I'd get bored quickly without some big problem to work on."

Sil shrugged and brought a hand up to trace patterns on Divayth's chest. "Maybe someday there'll be a terrible plague that confounds even the best healers, until...here comes the great Divayth Fyr! Presented with an interesting enough problem and high enough stakes, he saves us all!"

He chuckled and kissed Sil's head. "That's a bit dark, isn't it? Let's hope it never comes to that." Changing the subject, he motioned toward the backpack. "Now, show me what you could possibly have found that was worth sacrificing your shoulders like that."

Completely oblivious to the playful jab, Sil excitedly pulled his bag over and opened it with a huge smile. "Dwemer construct parts! I never expected to find any in the Summerset Isles, of all places. You can't even find this stuff at home! Well, you can, naturally, but it's...harder. And frowned upon. But not here, apparently! All of this was just for sale at some common Altmer's vendor stand in the middle of the Vulkhel Guard marketplace, as if it were nothing."

Divayth was impressed—and, indeed, interested—but his focus was more on his boyfriend and the enthusiasm that was practically radiating from him. It was apparently contagious, too, filling him with warmth just by being in proximity to the rays.

"What?" Sil asked. He was still smiling, but he looked suddenly embarrassed.

Divayth realized he'd been caught; he must have been staring for too long, probably wearing a strange smile. The last thing he wanted was to make Sil feel self-conscious about sharing his interests, so he answered honestly despite his own self-consciousness. "Do you have any idea how cute you are when you talk about something that excites you?"

"I—I don't know..." Sil stammered and nudged his boyfriend playfully. "You tell me."

"Very. Extremely. It makes me want to kiss you. A _lot_. Except I also don't want to, because I want you to keep talking."

"Go ahead and kiss me, then, and I can talk more later."

"You can talk more later?" Divayth said with mock incredulity. "You can't fool me. I know you're just trying to lure me in for even more kisses!"

"Alas, you've discovered my secret plan! May the Prince of Plots forgive my failure!" Sil giggled and leaned his head against Divayth's shoulder again. It was a familiar enough motion, though there was usually a robe separating them. He breathed deeply to take in the pleasant new feeling while they kept up the banter.

"Thought you could get away with it, didn't you? Well...you were right. I seem to be unable to resist your charm." He gently lifted Sil's face off his shoulder and met his lips in a kiss.

Sil tried to get closer, but found his path blocked by the almost-forgotten backpack. Before he could move it, Divayth interceded with a pointed look and a feather spell, and the picked up the light pack and set it on the floor.

"Shut up," Sil laughed.

"I've said nothing!"

" _Sure_ you haven't," Sil said as he moved closer, now free of the backpack's constraints. He pulled Divayth into an embrace with a hasty kiss, as if eager to steal the smirk from his face.

But the kiss continued, melting into something softer, as if all context had been lost and replaced with them simply being, together. This was more skin contact than either of them was used to, and they spent some time familiarizing themselves with the new feelings. Sil traced the surface of Divayth's back with the fingers of one hand, giving him goosebumps. The other hand ran down his side and along his leg to his knee where it folded underneath him, and then back up. Divayth joined in the explorations, and soon Sil broke the kiss apart so that his mouth could do some exploring too, placing kisses along Divayth's jaw, neck, shoulder, and all the way across his collarbone and back up the other side to meet his lips again.

After another moment, Divayth followed a similar pattern, but rather than stop at the collarbone, he switched to kissing in a vertical line down Sil's front. He gently pushed Sil back from his sitting position, and then let his hands follow his mouth down. He could feel the mer's pulse quicken as he reached his underwear. Or was it his own pulse? It was hard to say. He was too focused on getting this right to notice much of anything else.

He looked up at Sil with a question in his eyes. Sil nodded, a detectable eagerness behind the nervousness in his expression. And so he slid the underwear off and began tracing his hands over Sil's hips and thighs as he slowly kissed the parts of his abdomen that had previously been hidden.

"Have you been practicing your barrier spells?" Divayth asked in an exaggerated sexy voice. Though it was technically an honest question, he also meant to lighten things up a bit, lest he be overwhelmed by his own nerves.

It worked, as Sil laughed. "I have."

"Care to demonstrate?"

Sil cast a barrier with a flourish, equally happy to keep things light.

"May I admire your spellcraft?" Sil motioned for him to go ahead. "Hmm...Excellent construction..." He gently wrapped his fingers around Sil's penis, drawing a small gasp, and began rubbing circles with his thumb, turning the gasp into a moan. He took that as encouragement.

"Barrier spells have such an interesting color, almost like candy." He looked up at Sil with a mischievous smile. "I've always wondered what they taste like."

Sil was having a hard time keeping himself together enough to play along, but he managed to shrug coyly and say, "Perhaps you could try it and find out."

And suddenly all thoughts were washed out but the sensation of a mouth closing around his penis, tongue circling the head, hand changing its grip to accommodate. He gripped the bed's covers in tight fists as hand and mouth began sliding in tandem, settling into a rhythm that his own hips joined to match.

He released the blankets and went in search of Divayth's hair, only to be reminded that it was still tied back in its usual ponytail. He tried to remove the hair tie as gently as possible given the circumstances, but Divayth caught on and did it himself. Both of Sil's hands quickly laced their way into his partner's hair, taking care not to restrict his movement, sometimes combing through, other times tracing abstract shapes. When a sudden wave of sensation caused him to tense and instinctively tighten his fists, he only noticed and relaxed his grip when he felt Divayth hum against him.

But Divayth would have none of that relaxing. "That was hot. Do it again."

"You're one to talk," Sil said, surprised by how heavy his own breath was. But he tightened his grip again, eliciting more sound as Divayth went back down.

Sil wasn't quite sure how long he would last like this, and wanted to be safe. After a few more moments, he loosened his grip again and moved a hand to Divayth's face to get his attention.

"Before this goes too far, were you...thinking of doing anything else?" he asked.

Divayth looked up with an almost shy smile that betrayed his nervousness. "If you'll have me."

Sil dispelled the barrier for the moment and pulled him up into a deep kiss, and shifted so that they were lying next to each other. His hands traveled downward, but stopped and changed to tracing contemplative patterns on the small of his back.

"So, Valsirenn never mentioned anything about lubricant, but—"

"I'm going to have to stop you before you suggest anything you scraped off those Dwemer construct parts," Divayth deadpanned.

Sil nearly choked laughing. "No, I would never! I was just going to say that I've been working on modifying the texture of the barrier to have less friction." He kissed Divayth's nose. "I think I've managed to get it right, but let me know if you want me to change anything, okay?"

Divayth nodded. Anxious to continue, he pressed his lips back into Sil's, tongue slipping inside his mouth, and nudged his hands to get him to keep going. Sil obliged, sliding his hands into Divayth's underwear and gently coaxing them off. They adjusted to the new situation, Sil's hands running up and down his boyfriend's body, kissing all the while.

But nervous as Divayth was, he soon grew antsy. His teeth took on a more active role in the kisses, and his fingernails dug into Sil's shoulders. "Are you just trying to tease me now?" he asked in a low voice. "Or are you going to fuck me?"

It wasn't the kind of question that needed a verbal response. Sil rolled them so that he was on top of Divayth. He hovered there a moment, one arm on either side of the mer's head, and slowly lowered his upper body until their lips were separated by an immeasurably small distance. He cocked his head raised his eyebrows. "Better?"

"Getting there."

With a smirk, he moved away, his mouth forging a path along his neck, jaw, chin, ears—everything that wasn't lips—kissing, sucking, biting, supporting himself with one arm while the other hand gently danced fingers along the mer's thigh. Now he was absolutely teasing.

A small whine escaped from Divayth's throat. "Babe," he breathed, "at least kiss me. Please?"

Now Sil was happy to oblige, meeting his lips and kissing him deeply. He cast a fresh barrier and spread Divayth's legs to position himself between them. He took a moment to get the positioning right, and eventually decided to levitate Divayth's lower half to make it easier. The awkwardness quickly passed, and Divayth's breath grew short and body tensed as he wrapped his arms tightly around Sil's back and nodded his consent without breaking their lips apart.

Sil was equally reluctant to break the kiss, but without lifting his head more than necessary, he whispered, "You have to relax, my dear."

When he felt the grip on his back loosen, he slowly pushed inside, carefully monitoring the reaction. Divayth exhaled sharply and pushed further into the kiss, and so Sil continued, still slowly. He paused again to check in, ignoring his own desire to keep going. "Doing okay?" he asked.

"Mhm," Divayth nodded and gently tugged at Sil's hips.

Sil carefully slid the rest of the way in, with a long sigh from himself and a deep moan from his partner. Divayth was momentarily embarrassed by the noise, but he noticed how Sil's eyes lit up upon hearing it, evidently encouraged by the display of enjoyment. Sil pressed his mouth back into Divayth's firmly, almost possessively, lips parting immediately to make way for his tongue and to clear a path to swallow the moans directly from his partner's throat. He fell into a rhythm that Divayth found himself matching, cautiously at first, and then more actively.

Their lips stayed locked together but for the occasional breath, tongues flowing with almost as much ferocity as their hips. Their arms were wrapped around each other, pulling each other in ever closer as if trying to melt into one being of pure intimacy.

After some time, he wasn't sure how long, Divayth noticed Sil's breath growing heavier and kisses becoming more adamant, and he pulled back for a moment to speak. "Hey, babe, remember what I said about that gate to Coldharbour?"

Sil slowed his movement and looked at Divayth with concern. "Was I too close?"

"No! No, please keep going," he breathed. "I just forgot to mention...that the wise mer might find a place just before the gate..." He pulled Sil's arm out from under him and guided his hand as he spoke.

Sil caught on, and so Divayth didn't finish (his sentence, at least). He let go of Sil's hand and moved his own to his partner's hip in preparation. A sharp note of pleasure burst from his lips as fingers met his clit and began moving in phase with their hips.

"By Boethiah, Azura, and Mephala, _fuck_ ," Divayth muttered between gasps, the sensation having overwhelmed any ability or desire for eloquence.

And then they were kissing again, but more clumsily this time, a mess of sucking tongues and biting lips, rough breathing, sighing, moaning. Finally Sil felt Divayth tense around him, back arching, pulling him closer, grinding against him, forgetting any sense of rhythm, biting hard on his lip before letting out a gasping moan and several more obscenities, and returning to a kiss. The display pushed Sil over the edge. He wrapped his free arm tightly around his partner, his final thrusts slow but forceful, lips pressed firmly against Divayth's, and finally exhaled a long, vocal sigh and lowered himself down on top of his partner.

He pressed soft kisses into the curve of Divayth's neck, and carefully pulled out and rolled to the side. He cleaned up with a wave of his hand, and then propped himself up on one arm and ran his fingers along Divayth's chest with the other.

Divayth rolled to face him, smiling warmly and tiredly, letting Sil's hand drift naturally to his side. "You were right."

Sil looked at him questioningly.

"It was a little awkward and clumsy, but it was also intimate, and fun. And wonderful." He snuggled into Sil's chest and felt those mage arms wrap around him, creating a place of comfort and safety and holding him close within it.

"And now you have practice," Sil said. "And you know, I hope, that you have nothing to worry about." He kissed Divayth's head. "And now _I_ know," he continued, a playful tone entering his voice, "that if I ever want to turn you on, I should talk about Dwemer constructs."

Divayth scoffed lightly. "It's not the Dwemer that turn me on, babe," he mumbled into Sil's chest. "You could talk about _anything_ that excites you and I'd be in your thrall." He nuzzled in further, fighting his instinct keep up a façade of invulnerability. "Really. And I'm not just talking about sex. Your enthusiasm is something I greatly admire about you as a person. Don't lose it." He drove the point home by tapping a finger against Sil's chest.

"Also, barriers don't really taste like anything." He felt Sil's chest shake in a quiet laugh. It was a nice feeling.

"And finally, I wasn't really warm." He haphazardly flung out an arm and cast telekinesis to take the blanket from Sil's bed and cover them with it.

Sil laughed out loud this time. "You are hot, though."

"Damn right."


	6. Visit to Ald Sotha, part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Divayth comes home with Sil at the end of their first year at the College and meets the Sotha family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that their relationship is EstablishedTM, I'm probably going to start jumping around to random scenes throughout their college career.
> 
> This was getting pretty long and taking forever, so I decided to split it. The next chapter will probably be part 2, which is already half-or-so written.

A boat traveled along the Inner Sea. Among its passengers were two very exhausted young Chimer who had been traveling from the Summerset Isles without pause. Sil had gone up to the main deck of the ship to get some air, whereas Divayth was convinced that there was plenty of air belowdecks, and the air down here had the distinct advantage of not throwing itself at his face at ridiculous speeds. He was instead making sure his belongings were all in order before they docked at Ald Sotha. Still, Sil had been gone longer than expected, and so Divayth decided it was best to go brave the Rain's Hand winds to check on his boyfriend.

Sil was leaning against the side of the boat facing directly into the wind. He quietly wrapped an arm around Divayth when he approached.

"It already smells like home," he said after a moment.

Divayth couldn't tell if that was good or bad. He couldn't really seem to read Sil at all right now, so he probed for a bit more information. "Looking forward to seeing your family?"

Sil nodded, still staring off into the distance, his expression unchanged.

That wasn't very reassuring. "Do you think Nall is going to be reluctant to give you back the heir role?"

Sil laughed and broke his distant gaze. "No, I think she's going to throw it at me the second we arrive, and then yell at me for leaving her with it for so long."

Divayth also laughed. "No jealousy there, then?"

"Oh no, she's very happy to be younger one."

"How old is she, again? Close to our age, right?" Divayth kept the conversation going, noticing that Sil seemed to be perking up a bit.

"Twenty-one, just two years younger." Their proximity in age was an oddity among mer, especially long-lived highborn mer, who normally spaced their children out by at least a decade or so. After Nall was born, their parents had decided that the two of them were plenty to keep them occupied for at least a few decades, and so they remained the only children, even as they entered adulthood.

"Wow, no wonder you're close."

Sil nodded again, this time with a faint smile that faded quickly as his eyes found that far-away place again.

"What's up?" Divayth asked softly.

Sil shrugged and kept his eyes locked onto some point in the distance. "It's just a big shift. Big shifts are difficult."

Divayth pressed into him to comfort him, but let him keep talking.

"It's an odd sort of reversal. On one hand, I'm going home, which is familiar, and that should be a comfort, compared to always being a little out of place on Artaeum. But on the other hand, I'll also be instantly picking back up the role of a noble on display. And I'll be the weird mage of the family again — or, of the town, really — whereas at school, everyone's a bookish mage and I didn't have to guard myself as much." He sighed. "It's just going to be a strange transition."

"I hope I won't be making things harder..." Divayth said tentatively.

"No, no." Sil pulled him in closer. "I'm very glad you'll be with me."

The ship docked at Ald Sotha an hour or so later, and the two gathered their bags and stepped ashore. Divayth took a moment to refamiliarize himself with solid land. He didn't understand how people could enjoy a floor that moved under them. He much preferred the extremes: either walking on solid ground, or levitating with no ground at all.

He was startled and almost lost his balance when footsteps came racing toward them. Sil, however, was more prepared, and braced himself to catch his sister as she came zooming at him for a hug.

"Hi!" Sil laughed.

"You're home!" Nall said, still hugging him. Then she broke away and turned to the visitor to hug him as well. "I'm Nall. Are you Divayth?" she asked excitedly.

"I am. It's a pleasure to meet you, serjo," he said, hoping that was the correct level of politeness. He wasn't quite sure how to address his noble boyfriend's reluctantly-noble sister.

"No, no, no!" she said as she broke the hug, waving a finger at Divayth. "No more of this 'serjo' business now that Sil's home."

"It's not as if I'm totally displacing you," Sil said with amusement.

"Ugh, don't remind me," Nall said. She helped them carry their bags as they started toward the head family's house on the far end of town. "Merciful Azura, a year's worth of things is certainly heavy."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot I hadn't feathered that; I was going to when I picked it back up," Divayth said. "I can do that now—"

She waved him off. "No, it's fine! You guys interrupted my training, anyway, so this will make up for it. I'm just ready to curse whoever decided that we should live on the exact farthest point of town from the docks."

"She's right behind you," Sil whispered loudly. Ald Sotha held Azura as their patron, and by tradition, the key buildings were on the east and west borders of the town, to act as guardians of dawn and dusk. That meant that the head family lived on the western end of town near the Council chambers, while the easternmost point, along the coast by the docks, was occupied by the shrine to Azura. A statue of the Prince stood atop the shrine, facing the water, as if to welcome the twilight transitions for her people.

Nall laughed. "Sorry, my Prince!" she called over her shoulder. "Speaking of training, Sil, when's the last time you picked up a sword?"

"Er, last Midyear, I suppose..."

"You can fight with a sword?" Divayth asked.

"Arguably, Sil responded.

"Which is to say that I can kick his butt," Nall explained.

"In fairness, they won't let me use magic, which I obviously would in actual combat," he said.

"Yes, blame it on how no one wants to let you set your sword on fire..."

"I don't want to set my sword on fire; I just want to be able to shield myself."

"There's already a perfectly good non-magical way to shield yourself. It's called a shield!"

Divayth could tell they had had this conversation plenty of times before.

"Just wait till Almalexia gets here," Nall continued. "Then you'll really wish you'd kept up your training."

"Almalexia's coming?" Sil was surprised.

"Oh, did I forget to mention? Yes, she should be here tomorrow."

"How wonderful! And...concerning. Surely our parents aren't still hoping—"

"No," Nall laughed. "I think they're aware that that plan doesn't exactly apply anymore."

Sil noticed that Divayth looked a little lost, so he explained. "Our parents were excited when they heard that there was an Indoril baby born around the same time as me. They made a point of acquainting us as much as possible in the less-than-subtle hopes that I might marry into a Great House." He chuckled. "We ended up good friends, but..."

"...but I hear he's occupied these days," Nall finished, with a pointed look to Divayth.

"So he is," Divayth agreed with his own laugh.

"So what's bringing Ayem to Ald Sotha, then?" Sil asked.

"I invited her, in part because I thought you'd like to see each other—" Nall began.

"A wise diplomatic move," Sil said in a voice that imitated their History and Diplomacy tutor. "Good thinking, Serjo Sotha."

She slapped him playfully. "And in part because she and I are...in a bit of a thing of late."

"A _thing_?" Sil asked. Nall nodded. "Finally!"

"What do you mean, 'finally?'" Nall asked.

"I mean, I was starting to worry that all those times I made a point of leaving you two alone when you seemed to need the space were for nothing."

"That was intentional?" She stopped walking so that she could start punching him lightly as they talked.

"Of course," Sil laughed.

"And here I thought you were just the most oblivious mer in the world."

"I still wouldn't rule it out," Divayth said. "I can't count how many cues he missed before I finally just kissed him."

"Hey!" Sil nudged him playfully, and Nall laughed and resumed walking.

"By the way, Council is in session, of course, but I was told to send you in when you got here anyway," Nall said. They were approaching their house, with the Council chambers right in front of it, where both the Sotha parents were likely occupied. "I'm sure you can go set your things down first, as long as you're quick."

They went into the house and set their bags down in Sil's room, and then Nall left so that Sil could change into a slightly more formal robe, since he was going to be interrupting a Council meeting. He also took the opportunity to breathe and get a hug from Divayth before undergoing another big shift in persona. Then they headed back out and met Nall in front of the Council chambers.

"They're definitely expecting me?" he asked. Nall nodded.

He quietly entered the foyer of the building and waited near the door to the chamber to gauge what kind of discussion was going on. He wouldn't mind interrupting a calm discussion or presentation if he was expected, but he didn't want to burst in in the middle of a heated argument. It seemed relatively quiet; he could hear one voice, but not very clearly. It was probably safe.

He carefully opened the door and quietly slipped inside, staying by the wall. The speaker was one of his older cousins, standing on the opposite side of the room. He also spotted his parents, who were facing the speaker and hadn't noticed him come in. A couple heads turned when they heard the door and greeted him with an excited smile, but otherwise stayed quiet.

His cousin concluded his speech and sent a glancing smile at Sil as if unofficially passing him the floor.

Sil cleared his throat. "I hope you'll pardon the interruption—" He was drowned out by the scraping of chairs as both of his parents scrambled out of their seats and raced over to him.

"I think we can adjourn for lunch!" his father said as he excitedly took Sil by the shoulders and ushered him out of the building to where Divayth and Nall were still waiting, and then hugged him as soon as there was room.

His mother was right behind and immediately joined in the hug. "Oh, we've missed you!" she said. Then she turned to Divayth and hugged him as well. "And you must be Divayth! I'm so happy to finally meet you!"

Sil was greeted by the rest of the Council as they filed out of the building, while his parents were focused on Divayth. When there was finally a break in the flow of people, he slipped over to them and wrapped his arm around Divayth's waist, which got a smile from him.

"You two are just adorable!" Sil's mother continued. "I'm so glad you're happy. Oh, but you must be starving! Let's get lunch, shall we?"

* * *

After lunch, Sil wanted to give Divayth a more thorough tour of the town than he had gotten from their initial walk in from the docks. The boys changed into some lighter clothes that were more suited to walking around in the afternoon's growing heat, and headed southeast out of Sil's family's house.

"Most people live around here, close to the Council building. Up ahead, along the edge of this residential area, is where most of the mages work, and where most of them live," Sil explained as they walked. "Try not to be too...underwhelmed."

Divayth looked at him curiously.

Sil shrugged and said, "You know, when you see what kind of magic instruction I had growing up. We're mostly a fishing town, of course, and so most of the magic is utility-focused. I actually stopped being directly mentored by the local mages and started doing more independent study when I was around 13, because I had basically outgrown them."

The mages' section was indeed small, especially in comparison to the mushroom forests of the grazelands. Based on the equipment, it looked like enchanting was the main service that they provided. There was also a tower, though it seemed more functional than a classic wizard's tower. It had spinning and floating instruments hanging off it at several different heights, and a workspace with a wide variety of devices on the roof.

"That's for weather magic," Sil said when he noticed Divayth looking at the devices on the tower. "They do some manipulation, but they can also divine the coming weather several days in advance with surprising accuracy. They use those tools to incorporate multiple sources of information and then read the signals for patterns that mean rain or high pressure or something. Then, once they know what to expect, they can test how it would change if they added this much wind at that time, or something. It's fascinating, really..."

Divayth watched him as he talked, wearing a big, goofy smile of his own. He loved it when Sil went off on his monologues about things that interested him. He kind of wanted to jump up and kiss him, but he knew that would make the talking stop, so he resisted the urge.

"Sorry, I forgot I'm really the only one who thinks it's interesting," Sil interrupted himself with an embarrassed smile.

"Hey, no!" Divayth protested. "You know I love to listen to you talk about things you like."

"Well, at school, sure, but this is stuff that bores everyone."

"It wasn't boring me," Divayth said.

"Okay, but is that because you're interested in what I was saying, or because you're interested in me?" Sil teased, bumping Divayth with his hip as they walked.

"Both." Divayth bumped him back.

Sil continued to point things out as they walked. They passed the "commercial center," if it could be called that, and the fishing-related services leading up to the main docks.

"Up there and to the left is the library, which also houses the main school building, for things like diplomacy, history, literature, the classroom subjects," Sil said as they approached the end of the peninsula. "And right in front of us, before the shrine, is the training yard. That's where Nall and Almalexia have apparently scheduled me for a butt-kicking tomorrow. And, I imagine, the same for you. Have you ever done any swordfighting before?"

Divayth shook his head tentatively, eyeing Sil with suspicion.

"Want to give it a shot while it's just us? I know I wouldn't mind having a chance to practice before tomorrow."

"Er...how many limbs am I likely to lose?"

"Oh, the practice swords are wooden!" Sil laughed. "Sorry, I should have mentioned that."

"Oh," Divayth laughed with relief. "Then I suppose it couldn't hurt too much."

Sil tied his hair back into a quick bun and jogged over to the equipment shed to retrieve a few training swords. He handed one to Divayth and led him over to where the training dummies were. He showed him a typical one-handed grip and then backed up a few steps. "Now swing it around a bit. Get a feel for how it moves."

"Just...swing it?" Divayth asked.

Sil nodded and demonstrated by swinging his own sword around, first with some chopping motions and then in wide figure-8s. Divayth followed along after a second. Then there was a loud _crack_. Divayth yelped and jumped backwards, and held up a broken sword. He looked at the sword in horror, but then noticed that Sil was laughing and already holding out a replacement.

"That's why I brought extras," Sil said. "Let's try a couple swings at the training dummy, so you can get a feel for the range."

He demonstrated a basic slashing attack, slowly at first. "You might think the point is to hit as hard as you can, but with a light sword, you really want precision." He swung the blade again, quickly this time, and slashed across the target's chest. Then he guided Divayth's arm through the same motions, and let him try a few swings on his own before moving onto the next type.

"I think you're just making some of this up as an excuse to touch me," Divayth said as Sil stood behind him with a hand guiding the motion of his hips and the other guiding his shoulders through the swing.

"I'll admit the thought has crossed my mind," Sil said. He quickly kissed Divayth on the cheek before backing up to let him try the swing.

When they had finished with basic attacks, they moved away from the training dummies and faced each other to try sparring. For the first few minutes, it mostly involved Sil dramatically telegraphing a swing while telling Divayth how to dodge or parry and counter, but they soon progressed to more fluid mock combat.

"How do people put up with armor?" Divayth asked between bouts. "I'm practically dying in my shirt."

"You can take your shirt off," Sil said.

"I'm not just going to take my shirt off in the middle of town!" Divayth said.

Sil laughed. "We're in the training yard. You're allowed to take your shirt off."

Divayth looked unconvinced, so Sil took off his own shirt and tossed it aside. "There. See?"

"Mhmm," Divayth said with a slightly smug and very satisfied smile.

"Was that a ploy?"

"Perhaps." Divayth's eyes were wandering around Sil's chest.

"Eyes on the sword, my dear," Sil teased, poking at him with his sword.

Divayth's eyes drifted pointedly downward.

Sil shrugged. "I warned you." He cast a spell that knocked Divayth off his feet, and then shadowstepped forward and caught him with one arm before he hit the ground. With the other, he easily plucked Divayth's sword from his hand, dropped it, and laced their fingers together. With their lips nearly touching, he said, "You know, there are much more direct ways to get my clothes off."

"And yet, this indirect method proved even more successful than I expected," Divayth replied. "By the way, have you stashed another sword in your pocket, or—"

"I could drop you, you know," Sil said.

"But you wouldn't."

"No, I wouldn't," he agreed. "But I _could_ tickle you."

"You _wouldn't_."

"I might," Sil said with a mischievous smile.

Divayth scrambled out of his grip and picked his sword back up, holding it out in front of him. "Not if you can't get to me!"

Sil casually picked his own sword up, knocked Divayth's out of the way and then brought it down and swept his feet out from under him. He swiftly stepped behind him, completed the disarm, and wrapped his arms around him. "Did you forget that I know what I'm doing?" he said against Divayth's ear.

"No," Divayth said. "But I like the way you move, and it's kind of hot when you show off for me."

Sil released him and straightened up, but his eyes glowed with ideas. "Well, I think that's enough practice for now, don't you? Maybe we should head back for the night before half the town starts passing through here on their way to the shrine for dusk prayers." He picked up the swords and his shirt as he talked. "We could relax, maybe take a bath..."

* * *

"Almost ready," Sil said. They were sitting on the floor in their underwear, idly holding hands while they waited for the bath water to finish heating. Sil had his free arm draped over the side of the tub, swirling his hand around in the water to monitor and make adjustments to the temperature.

"I can't wait," Divayth said in a dramatic sigh. "I was so worried about getting chopped to pieces that I forgot about sore muscles."

The water was done heating a minute or two later, and they slipped off the rest of their clothes and stepped into the tub. Sil sat down and motioned for Divayth to sit in front of him, kissing up his back as Divayth lowered himself down into the warm water, and then covering his shoulders and neck in more kisses once he was situated. Divayth hummed in enjoyment and relaxed back against Sil. They spent several minutes just sitting, enjoying the water and each other's presence.

Sil had almost fallen asleep when Divayth asked, "How is the shift going for you?"

"Exhausting, that's for sure," Sil replied. "But otherwise, not so bad. How have I looked from the outside? Too unnatural in my old roles?"

Divayth shook his head. "Quite the contrary: when you wear your noble aspect — if that's the term for it — you carry yourself with an air of confidence. A commanding nature. It's...cute."

"Cute?" Sil was slightly concerned. "Cute is not exactly the goal..."

"'Cute' as in it makes me fantasize about you ordering me to my knees, or having me strip down for you, or, you know, generally making demands of me, while you look at me with that stoic expression with all that emotion hidden right behind your eyes...that kind of cute. Or something. I don't know. Shut up."

"I will keep that in mind," Sil said with a faint smirk. But the revelation had made Divayth tense and fidgety, and so Sil reached out for his chin and brought him in close for a long kiss until he relaxed again. "And, thank you for checking in," Sil added.

Divayth stayed fixated on Sil with a serene smile, and it took him a few seconds to break away and go back to his previous position. "On another topic altogether," he said when he had finally turned back, "what do I need to know about Serjo Almalexia?"

"Hmm...Almalexia is difficult to summarize. You'll see drastically different aspects of her in different scenarios," Sil said. "When she first arrives, you'll see her agreeable diplomat aspect, with all the detached serenity and florid pleasantries that you would expect of a Great House noble. And of course, the agreeable diplomat aspect can become the shrewd diplomat aspect when needed, but I don't expect that side to come out during introductions."

"Good to know, regardless. What else?" Divayth asked.

"Let's see," Sil's fingers danced around Divayth's chest as he thought. "Once it's just the four of us or so, she'll drop her diplomat aspect, and you'll see what I would call her real self if I were so presumptuous as to claim I truly knew what she was like when not performing. But, in that state she has a much bolder personality. She's louder, flirtier, more energetic, quick to voice her opinions, and equally likely to respond to any offense with her wit or with her fists. That's not to say she's belligerent. Much of her aggression is in the form of her being aggressively _nice_. She'll be similar in the training yard as well. She's a fierce fighter, but she'll drop everything to heal you if you should get hurt. But you probably won't get hurt, because she really knows what she's doing with a sword."

"Speaking of which..." Divayth probed.

Sil sighed with mock exasperation, though he knew the question was coming. "Yes, she's also good in bed. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

Divayth laughed softly, his chest bouncing against Sil's hands.

Sil kissed his cheek. "I should mention, though, that Ayem might try to kiss me when she arrives. That's just how we normally greet each other. Would that bother you?"

Divayth shook his head. "Not at all."

"Actually, now that I think about it, she may well want to kiss you too."

Divayth laughed. "Well, I would hope so! I wouldn't want to be left out."


	7. Visit to Ald Sotha, part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Almalexia arrives at Ald Sotha. They beat each other up (for training purposes), and then later they get drunk on mazte and hang out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one features a preview of the next installment of "I decided how Psijic magic works": telepathic projection! I was going to bring it up in the next couple chapters, but I had a place to introduce it here and decided to take advantage of it. But I'm definitely going to spend time actually exploring it soon.

Almalexia's transport was set to arrive in the late morning. Sil, Nall, and Divayth sat by the docks to wait for her.

"Excited?" Sil asked Nall, who simply nodded with her eyes fixed on the water. "Nervous?"

She turned and shoved him. "Shut up!"

Sil laughed. "I'm sorry, maybe it's just the Psijic training, but I can practically feel you vibrating with anticipation."

"I haven't seen her in a while!" Nall said.

"Understandable. Neither have I."

Nall lowered her voice and countered, "Yes, but this time _I'm_ the one sleeping with her." Then she froze and looked at Divayth nervously.

Sil laughed. "It's okay, that's not a secret."

Nall sighed with relief and turned her attention back to the sea.

After some more waiting, a boat docked at Ald Sotha, and the three stood to receive the only passenger who was getting off at this stop: a Chimer with fluffy red hair, dressed in travel clothes that were equal parts elegant and practical, wearing a gentle, serene smile that turned warm when she saw her friends waiting for her. Everything about her, down to the way she walked, looked both carefully crafted and extremely natural.

Nall stepped ahead to meet her first, and bowed in greeting.

Almalexia met her in a gentle embrace and kissed her lightly on the cheek. "It is lovely to see you," she said, and their eyes met briefly with the understanding that there would be more warmth when they were out of view of the whole town. For now, however, she took Nall's arm, and they turned in the direction of the boys.

They each bowed, and then Sil gestured toward Divayth and said, "I would like to introduce you to Sera Divayth Fyr, retainer to the Great House Telvanni, student of the Psijic Order, and my boyfriend."

"Greetings, Sera Fyr," Almalexia said. "I have heard much about you from my correspondences with Sil and Nall, and I am pleased to finally have the opportunity to meet you. Sil means a great deal to me, and it brings me great joy to see him with someone who makes him happy."

The long walk across the town was filled with an impressive stream of small talk, covering topics from the College of Psijics, to combat training, to the weather (but not weather magic), to Mournhold politics. Finally, they arrived at the main Sothas' house. Despite not showing any sign of strain during the walk, Almalexia looked as if she had dropped more than her bags as soon as they stepped inside. They glanced around to confirm that they indeed had privacy, and then she leapt at Nall to get a proper kiss.

She sighed and kept her hand on Nall's face for a couple extra seconds while she looked up at her. "I've missed you," she said softly. "And you!" She turned to Sil and kissed him, though with less intensity than her kiss with Nall. "And I didn't technically know you, but I've been dying to meet you," she said as she turned to Divayth and kissed him too. Then she turned back to Nall and kissed her again. "Though I didn't miss having to strain on my toes to reach you," she grumbled.

"That's the problem with dating tall mer, isn't it?" Divayth said.

"It is! At least you understand." Ayem and Divayth were around the same height, while Sil was a head taller, and Nall was almost as tall as Sil. Ayem turned to Nall with a smirk and said, "Well, you won't be so tall when I knock you to the training yard floor."

"Is that any way to talk to your girlfriend?" Sil teased.

Almalexia pointed a threatening finger at him. "You hush. Don't act like we're not going to destroy you, Serjo Squishy Psijic."

After a short rest and long walk, the four of them were back on the opposite end of town, getting geared up in the equipment shed as the sun reached its zenith.

"Ah. We're wearing armor today," Divayth commented as Nall handed him a set of leathers. He tried to look confident as he picked up the various pieces that looked nothing like apparel to him and tried to divine which went where. To his relief, Sil was the one who noticed his struggle and came over to help him get them on.

"Ugh, get a room, you two!" Ayem shouted at them, well aware of the irony as she sat draped across Nall's lap with her arms around her shoulders.

"Yes, how scandalous of us to be putting on _more clothes_ , in public!" Sil deadpanned without looking up. "I do hope you can forgive us for our indecency." He finished lacing Divayth's armor and gave him a quick peck on the lips before picking up a wooden longsword and looking at the girls. "Coming?"

They headed into the yard.

"So, Divayth, how much swordfighting experience do you have?" Nall asked.

"Well, uh, let's see..." He pretended to count on his fingers as he contemplated the answer. "I think it was...almost an entire afternoon. Would you agree, Sil?"

"That sounds accurate to me," Sil said.

"Wait, did you two practice yesterday?" Nall asked. "That's cheating! You weren't supposed to have used a sword since last spring, Sil!"

"Oh, I didn't realize those were the conditions you needed in order to win," Sil replied.

She glared at him. "No matter, check this out." She pulled two shortswords off her belt.

"Wait a moment," Sil protested. "You get to dual wield, but we can't use any magic?"

"I trained for this!" Nall said.

"Right, and I was on Artaeum for the scenery?"

"I don't know, fight me and then I'll answer. First blood."

Fights to first blood were normally quick, as they ended the first time a weapon made contact with its wielder's opponent, but this one was exceptionally fast. Nall swung high with one sword, which Sil parried. Then she brought the other one around, which he instinctively brought his arm up to block. In a normal fight, he would have thrown up a ward. But without magic, he had basically offered his arm to be chopped off.

"So, how was the scenery?" Nall teased. "Pretty enough to make you forget that shields exist?"

"I know shields exist," Sil grumbled, rubbing the spot on his arm where Nall had hit him. "But I'd never use one in real life, so I don't see why I should use one now."

Ayem came over and cast a quick heal on Sil. "You know, Nall, I think you may be outnumbered. I wouldn't mind using magic. I'd certainly rather use magic to fight than to heal Seht every time he forgets he can't ward. And I doubt you'll get any support from the Telvanni Psijic who doesn't know a cuirass from bracers?" She looked at Divayth as she asked, who agreed, despite the friendly jab.

Nall looked absolutely scandalized.

"Sehti-Nehti, my sweet," Ayem said, sauntering over to her in a move that fooled no one but Nall. She wrapped her arms around Nall's neck and whispered, "You get _two whole swords_."

Nall's glare softened as her arms floated around Almalexia's waist and their lips met in a kiss. "Fine," she huffed, now smiling.

"Yes! Fight me first!" Ayem said. Per their custom, the winner of each fight could choose their next opponent. She hopped back and cloaked her wooden sword with lightning and held it ready, with her off hand up in preparation to defend.

"Oh dear, what have I agreed to?" Nall muttered mostly to herself, but she drew her shortswords again anyway. "After you."

Almalexia slashed her sword at Nall, who jumped back and countered with a jab at Ayem's exposed side. Ayem drew her elbow back to knock Nall's arm out of the way, and then used her magic hand to repel the slash that was coming toward her stomach, leaving Nall's front exposed. Taking advantage of the opening, Ayem swung her sword, slicing across Nall's chest. Nall stumbled backwards, momentarily startled by the feeling of the lightning spell. Ayem charged forward and bashed her with her off arm, sending her to the ground.

She brought the tip of her sword to Nall's neck to symbolically solidify her victory and said, "I told you I'd be the tall one." Then she dropped the sword and offered a hand to help Nall up, a kiss in good sportsmership, and a light analgesic spell for where her sword had hit. Then she picked her sword back up and turned to the boys.

"Sehti-Seht. Fight me," Almalexia commanded, pointing her crackling sword at Sil.

As he stood to enter the proverbial ring, Sil asked, "If we're using magic, do I have to use a sword at all?"

"Hmm," Ayem tapped her sword to her chin as she considered the question. "Yes. You can magic the sword however you want, within reason, but you must have at least one hand occupied by a sword."

"Fair enough," Sil said as he picked up his sword and approached the center to face Ayem. He cast an armor spell, having taken his physical armor off as soon as Nall had agreed to the use of magic—he hated the restricting feeling that even light armor had—and stood ready.

Ayem eyed him curiously. There was no immediately obvious offensive magic that she could detect. She would have to stay alert. "Whenever you're ready," she said.

Sil started with a swing that was easily deflected and countered by Almalexia. He dodged the counterattack with a powered sidestep, trying to get behind Ayem, but she turned faster than he could step and took another swing, forcing him to block. The fight continued for a while, with Ayem's sword carving sparkling ribbons in the air while Seht danced around her, trying to find an opening. When a gap formed between them after Sil had jumped out of the way of a blow, Ayem lunged in for a two-handed strike. Sil sidestepped and altered his sword to coil around Ayem's and pull it from her grip, causing her to fall forward, disarmed. He drew up a cushioning spell from the ground to break her fall, but cast telekinesis to hold her down long enough to secure his win.

When Almalexia was up, Sil extended a hand toward Divayth. "Your turn, my dear."

* * *

That night, the four of them lay sprawled out on blankets on the northern beach next to a fire, drinking under the stars. Because, as Ayem put it, "What better way to get to know Seht's boyfriend than by handing our wits over to mazte?"

To Divayth's relief, he didn't face much interrogation. He fielded a couple questions about his background, interests, life in Telvanni territory, and that sort of thing, but for a while it was mostly the other three catching up. Almalexia had much to update them on from Mournhold. Apparently even in the short time that she had been "officially" engaged in the government, she had learned of so many "common knowledge" secrets—alliances, enemies, affairs, bribes, contradictions—that she could hardly keep track of who was safe to talk to and found herself constantly on her guard, even in the most irrelevant and innocuous situations.

"But, I suppose that's just lesson number one," she said. "Never drop your guard; _no one_ is safe to talk to."

It was significantly more interesting than Divayth had expected, but it also reaffirmed his desire to stay as far away from politics as possible.

A number of drinks in, he was sitting up so that Sil could more easily play with his hair. It seemed his boyfriend sought more tactile stimulation with each drink. He tilted his head back (well, Sil did the tilting, but Divayth went with it) and decided to take stock of the sky. It was a clear night, and the stars were easy to pick out.

"Beautiful view of The Mage tonight," he said.

"Beautiful view of... _you_ mage," Sil mumbled, certain there was a coherent thought in there somewhere.

Divayth turned around to face him, giggling more than he would have normally. "Beautiful view of me mage?" Sil nodded. "But it's dark, you can't even see me."

Sil cast a magelight, causing everyone, including himself, to shout and shield their eyes until he remembered he could extinguish it.

"Point taken," Divayth said. "But, babe, look at the sky! Look how pretty it is!"

Sil listened this time, as did Nall and Almalexia.

"Why did the Magna Ge leave in patterns?" Almalexia wondered out loud. "Did they do that on purpose? To give us special birthsign powers?"

"Did they do it on purpose..." Sil contemplated. He didn't know the answer, but with his lessened inhibitions, he started thinking out loud, positing a number of ideas along the way and refining them as he went. Divayth helped a little at first, but soon became more interested in Sil than in participating in the conversation. He climbed into his boyfriend's lap and rested his head on his shoulder for a moment, but soon sat up more so that he could see him better. He watched the way Sil's lips moved, the way his eyes sparkled with interest and darted around as though he were studying some data that no one else could see, and felt the way his heart beat faster than normal when presented with an exciting problem. He forgot Sil was talking at all, and pulled his face to his and kissed him.

Sil seemed perfectly content with the sudden change in what his mouth was doing and went along with it with enthusiasm. It lasted a fair bit longer than it would have if either of them remembered that they were among company before Nall commented, "Gross."

Not long after, the fire was down to its last embers, the ash hoppers were encroaching, and the four mer were getting tired, and so they decided to head in for the night.

Sil held Almalexia back a moment on the way in.

"Thanks for your support back in the training yard. It was much more fun than the usual way, where I just get beaten up without my magic to defend me," he said. "That was an interesting tactic you used on Nall. Do you do that sort of thing often?"

"Do I...charm her?" Ayem asked tentatively. "On occasion, I suppose."

"You know I'm not talking about 'charming,' Ayem," Sil responded with a little more impatience than was wise. Ayem was probably grading him on his negotiating skills, and that would certainly have cost him some points. But then, this was about his little sister, and he wasn't interested in playing diplomacy games. "Do you manipulate her? Do you exploit her feelings to get what you want?"

Almalexia was silent for a moment, and it was too dark for Sil to see if she was thinking of a response or refusing to answer.

"I'm not concerned with benign or inconsequential things like today in the training yard," he continued. "I just hope you respect her enough not to manipulate her on anything important."

"Of course I respect her, Seht. I really like her."

Sil narrowed his eyes. "That's not a strong enough answer. I'll ask more directly: Do you coerce her into sex?"

"No," Ayem replied fervently. "Absolutely not. I would never do that."

"Do you manipulate her into anything of actual consequence?"

"No," she responded with less confidence.

"Ayem?"

"I don't know, Seht. What do you consider consequential?" She sighed. "I'll be careful. I promise."

Sil studied her for a moment, and then nodded. "I suppose I should talk to Nall anyway..."

"You don't trust me?" Ayem asked.

He laughed. "Is that a test? Are you worried I might have gone soft in the Summerset Isles? Worry not: I love you, and I know better than to trust you."

Almalexia chuckled. It seemed that that was a satisfactory answer.

"On a lighter note, your boyfriend is cute," she said.

"Thanks, I think so too," he replied.

"So, how is he? Good? Is he loud? He strikes me as the vocal type. What are your favorite positions? How do you turn him on?"

"Good night, Ayem." Sil kissed the top of her head and went inside.

"Oh, you're no fun! That's fine; I'll just ask him. Sera Divayth!" She followed him in and skipped over to Divayth, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. She turned to face Sil and said, "I'm going to get all the juicy details on you instead!"

"As if you don't already have all the juicy details on me?"

Ayem laughed. "Oh, I'm sure there's plenty more to learn."

"Well," Nall interjected from across the room. "I'm going to bed. Come to me when you're done with...whatever you're doing, Ayem?"

Sil figured it was best to give Divayth and Ayem a couple minutes to gossip about him in private, and so he used the time to check in with Nall. When he returned several minutes later, they were on the couch, and Almalexia was listening with rapt attention as a now shirtless Divayth spoke.

"...and then there's this one spot on his neck that I swear may as well be his on-switch. I just kiss him there and our clothes are off in seconds."

An interesting topic, but Sil wasn't about to let them have all the fun. He ran his fingers over Divayth's exposed back as he approached, and then leaned over and took the tip of his ear in his mouth, adding the lightest brush of teeth.

The goosebumps alone were a lovely reward, but the way Divayth faltered and lost his train of thought, and his face when Sil offered, "You were saying something about an on-switch?" reduced Sil to a giggling mess, which quickly spread to Divayth and Ayem. The mazte probably helped, too.

"So, have you come to your senses?" Almalexia asked after they had all caught their breath. "Are you joining the juicy detail discussion?"

"I suppose I am. Perhaps we should move to my chambers?"

Sil took a few blankets from the closet on the way to his room, and they all arranged themselves in a makeshift blanket nest on the bed.

"What happened to your shirt, my dear? Not that I'm complaining," he asked as he settled down next to Divayth.

"Oh, I was showing off my chest spell," Divayth said.

Almalexia added, "I was surprised to hear that you were the top, so Divayth filled me in." She turned back to Divayth before Sil could question her. "Is it uncomfortable?"

Divayth shook his head. "It doesn't really feel like anything."

"But it's not an illusion, is it? Can I touch?"

"Go ahead." He continued while Almalexia patted at his chest to try to understand the nature of the spell. "It's an alteration, technically. Space-manipulation, mostly."

"Impressive. Does it take a lot of magicka to keep it on all the time?"

"Hardly any, by now."

"But it does drain some? Do you get enough fruit?"

Divayth hesitated, which didn't satisfy Almalexia.

"You need fruit to replenish your magicka!" she said as she hopped up and left the room.

"Did I mention her healer instinct?" Sil asked quietly, just as Ayem returned with a gorapple.

She handed it to him and returned to her spot on the bed. "Eat!" she commanded, staring at Divayth with a stern expression until he obeyed.

"Good. Have some fruit every day, with breakfast, or...do you take potions too? You could have some with your daily potions. Something. And you," she turned to Sil, "stay on top of him—well, with respect to fruit, at least. Three know you barely remember to eat for yourself, and I'm sure it's even worse when you're off at wizard school, but between the two of you, I hope you can remember. You can't just go draining your magicka all the time without having a way to replenish it! Any questions?"

"Can I stay on top of him in other respects as well?"

"Probably, but that's not for me to decide. Now, let's see...we've covered your respective on-switches, that Seht's somehow a top..." She paused to look them over. They had adjusted so that Sil was sitting behind Divayth, with his arms wrapped around Divayth's waist. He was letting his fingers travel idly while Divayth leaned back against him, his focus mostly on his gorapple. Sil raised an eyebrow at Almalexia's gaze.

"I suppose I can see it," she conceded. She looked to Divayth and fake-whispered, "Is he any good at it?"

Divayth chuckled. "I can't say I exactly have a point of comparison, but I've certainly been enjoying it."

"Really?" Ayem asked. "I'd assumed it was just a myth that mages are all too wrapped up in their work to notice each other. Is it really true? Where do baby Telvanni come from?"

"They grow in the bumps on the mushroom towers," Sil quipped.

"Oh, it is a myth," Divayth said. "Some are too wrapped up in their work, sure, but others fuck like netches to make up for it. As for me, I've just...never really had much interest in anyone else, I suppose. Not to get far too sappy..." He took a swig of mazte to distract himself from the terror of being known.

"Oh, you two match, then!" Ayem said. "Because Seht only gets crushes on people he's especially close to, right?"

Sil nodded.

"But I thought that was because of how your brain is all different about people and stuff," she said.

Sil shrugged. "It may be related. It's hard to say."

"Is your brain like his?" she asked Divayth. "Or don't you know? I guess it can be hard to tell sometimes."

"We've projected, actually; my brain's not like his," Divayth said.

"You've projected? That sounds like a Psijic thing."

"It is a Psijic thing. Do you want to see? I can show you exactly what my brain is like," Sil offered.

Ayem suddenly felt a little guarded. She was expecting to be the one in control for the conversation, but she was also very curious. "I...suppose so. Sure."

Sil held out a hand. "First, I need to learn your signature. Everyone has a unique essence, so to speak, in the projected plane. The easiest way to identify a person's essence is to know their magicka signature. You know how fire and ice spells have a different feel to them, aside from the obvious physical burning or freezing, of course? It's like that. So, touch my hand with a small burst of magicka."

She did.

"Thank you. Now I'll do the same to you, so that when you feel me project to you, you'll know it's me."

"Who else would it be?"

He shrugged. "It's just best practice."

She cautiously extended her hand again. "What am I looking for?"

"Just try to notice the overall feel of it." He touched her palm with two magicka-charged fingertips. "Got it?"

She nodded.

"Good. Now you'll feel me nudge at the edge of your consciousness. Try to reach out and grab it."

"Metaphysically, right?"

"Right." Seht shifted his perception to the projected plane and found Ayem's signature. He created a process from his own consciousness, giving it a relatively wide band so that he could share a more complete sense of his mind, rather than limiting it to any specific type of signal. He sent the projection out and gently tapped at Ayem's consciousness.

Almalexia identified the feeling and joined with the projection with relative ease. The first signal she perceived was Sil being proud of her for grasping the projection so quickly. Apparently it was not exactly simple.

"Aw, thanks. You could say these things out loud sometimes, you know," she teased.

Sil laughed. "You picked that up at an impressive speed."

"Oh. Everything is...a lot," she said once she'd adapted to the rest of the signal. It was the best way she could describe how her senses changed. She was suddenly aware of sounds she hadn't even realized existed: the wind on the relatively calm night, each of their breathing, the hum of every single source of magic. Her own voice through Sil's auditory processing was...not exactly louder, but sharper, and yet somehow harder to understand among all the other noises.

She felt each movement of Sil's articulators when he spoke, and she noticed that it felt like an unnatural, if well-practiced, task. She noticed the touch of her clothes—no, Sil's clothes—against his skin and understood why he tended to prefer simpler garments. All the edges and seams were distracting and borderline uncomfortable.

"Is that why you use those gears and chains and things when you're thinking? To balance out all your senses?" she asked.

"That's part of it."

"Do you have any right here?"

He took two small sets of free-spinning gears from the nightstand and handed one to Ayem, and began spinning the other himself.

"Can you share your vision, or does that not work?" Ayem asked.

"I can, but it might be particularly difficult to process. You'll have to be good at tuning out your own vision, and it might feel a bit weird when you can't move my eyes or my head. Do you want to try it?"

She nodded.

"Tell me if you need me to back it off," Sil said, and then he adjusted the band of the projection to include his vision.

The lights were bright. Everything was detailed. Some things, overwhelmingly so, but others to a more gentle, captivating degree. Without thinking, Almalexia found herself visually tracing the lines between the floorboards and picking out patterns in the colors of the bricks in the wall.

"You have to show your thinking process," Divayth said. He got up and fetched a few textbooks from the dresser, ones they had used this past year. "Let's see...Oh, these are all in Aldmeris, too. Bonus!"

He picked out some problems from each of them that he knew Sil would be able to solve easily with just a little bit of thought. He wasn't trying to challenge him exactly, but he also didn't want the answers to be so simple that Sil could pull them right out of memory without doing any reasoning.

Ayem watched as bits of information flashed around her consciousness, fitting themselves together or coming apart in layers, building and merging to form some sort of structure that ultimately melted into a solution.

Sil looked at Divayth. "What's next?" He kept his gaze fixated on his boyfriend as the latter flipped through the books.

As usual, Divayth had all of the textbooks levitating in front of him and shifted them around with his focus. Sil was taken by his beauty and couldn't help but smile as he watched Divayth flip through the pages, mumbling to himself and then moving to the next book.

"Wow," Almalexia said, her voice serene and almost distant. "You really love him a lot, don't you?"

Sil jolted back into focus and turned a bright red. She was right, of course, but neither he nor Divayth had ever put it quite so plainly. He stammered something along the lines of, "I—of course— _Ayem_ —" and, in his flustered state, accidentally broke the connection.

Almalexia laughed apologetically; it rang out in a loving peal. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to expose you like that."

"N-no, it's...not a problem..." Sil struggled to get himself together and mitigate the damage as much as possible. "So, disconnecting from a projection can be jarring. Everything will probably get a lot less loud—"

"I think I've got it handled, but thank you," Ayem said with a smile. "It's time for bed, anyway. Good night, boys."

She kissed each of them and left for Nall's chambers.

Sil glanced worriedly at Divayth. Should he say something? Confirm what Almalexia had pointed out so casually? Brush it off and wait for some more appropriate time in the future? Neglect to acknowledge it altogether?

Divayth interrupted Sil's internal conflict with a long, deep kiss. He hoped it could soothe Sil's worries and act as a sort of answer. Gods knew he wasn't exactly the type to address these sorts of things himself.

Still, there was some degree of tension in the air, even after they had gotten in bed. Really, it wasn't just in the air. Divayth noted that Sil's arms hadn't relaxed yet, minutes after they had snuggled up together. Neither of them was going to sleep until this was out of the way.

"Hey, Sil?"

Sil noticed the nervousness in Divayth's voice and felt at least as nervous about what he was going to say. He uttered a weak, "Hm?"

Divayth started to smush his face into Sil's chest in his anxiousness, but stopped himself. The last thing he wanted was for his voice to be muffled and his words go unheard. He took a breath and steeled himself, and spoke.

"I love you too."


	8. Kicked out of the library

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys go to one of the many libraries of the Psijic Order. Sil tries to do research for a paper. Divayth is bored. They get kicked out and go back to their dorm instead.

The Psijic Order maintained nearly countless libraries, and this Sundas afternoon, the boys decided to explore one of them. Even when limited to those available to undergraduate students in the College, there were more libraries here than one could reasonably be expected to visit in a typical career. This particular library existed in a pocket realm accessible from Ceporah Tower, though for a pocket, it looked almost as big as the tower where it could be found.

Coming to the library was Sil's idea; he was writing a term paper on the arbitrariness of the distinction between organic and inorganic material in terms of their fundamental and magical properties, and he had learned that this particular library had some sources on the topic that were hard to find elsewhere. Divayth came with him partly to see the library, but mostly because he enjoyed Sil's company, and he knew the feeling was mutual.

The place was unlike any library either of them had experienced before. It seemed to be designed like a tower—a common theme among mages, Divayth noticed. It was several stories high, but there were no floors between the levels, or really any distinct levels at all. Stacks of books lined the rounded walls, and cyclic levitate-and-slowfall enchantments prevented any dropped objects from being lost. There were workspaces throughout the height of the tower: each a floating platform with some sort of seat, light, and usually a desk, but the specifics varied widely from one platform to the next. This must have been one of the more popular libraries, as it actually had a librarian, who was on a platform that floated throughout the library in a seemingly random pattern.

Unfortunately, Divayth realized quickly that he didn't feel much like reading right then. He tried floating around a bit to see if there were at least any books he could take out on some topics of interest, but he learned that his main foci were housed in different libraries. Such was the inconvenience of this type of evolving library system.

He rejoined Sil, who had found a platform with a low desk with cushions to sit on, illuminated by a few warm magelights, and picked up the list of sources that Sil was after.

"I'll go grab the next few, okay?" he whispered.

Sil looked up. "Oh, that sounds great, thank you."

Divayth returned with the next stack of books a few minutes later. He set them down on the desk a little louder than intended, which drew a stern look from the librarian. He made an apologetic face in response, but the librarian seemed unamused as he floated away. Sil, however, did look slightly amused, which was more important. He kissed Divayth on the cheek before returning to his reading.

But Divayth was still bored. He sat down on the cushion next to Sil and picked up one of the books he had retrieved. He flipped through a few pages, but couldn't get himself to actually read. Instead, he found himself looking around the library, trying to figure out where exactly they were, how the pocket had been constructed, how the _library_ had been constructed, whether the pocket realm contained more than just this library...

Sil noticed his fidgeting and wrapped an arm around him, briefly leaning his head on his shoulder before going back to his books. Divayth smiled, happy to be keeping Sil company even if he was antsy himself. He picked up another book, and found yet again that it was of no interest to him, so he returned to contemplating the construction of the library. He looked around, and around, and up, and behind him, and he leaned just a little too far back to look behind and under him and that he nearly fell off the platform. He yelped and cast a hasty levitation spell without bothering to muffle it, while Sil jumped to grab him, bucking the desk and knocking over the stack of books.

Before they could even watch their lives flash before their eyes, the librarian's platform came zooming over to them.

" _Gentlemer,_ " the librarian whispered harshly. "Need I remind you that this is a _library_? If you are not going to respect the others who are _actually studying_ here, then you will have to leave. I am _sure_ you do not wish to get on Loremaster Celarus's bad side."

They nodded with very solemn faces, which broke the second the librarian floated away. Sil had to bury his face in Divayth's shoulder to muffle a giggle.

"I didn't even know Celarus _had_ a bad side," Divayth whispered. "But I definitely don't want to find out."

Sil suppressed another laugh and wrapped his arm around Divayth a little tighter. He passed him a book and whispered, "At least pretend you're reading."

"I tried; I can't focus on anything right now." He glanced around again. "Do you think we're allowed to eat in here?"

"I doubt it," Sil said. "Three forbid you make a sound with it."

"Actually, I think this is why the Three told Veloth to leave," Divayth grumbled.

He sighed and leaned into Sil, and let his hand drift to Sil's thigh under the desk as he pretended to read.

"Crafty," Sil commented quietly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Divayth said. He felt around for the hem of Sil's robes and hoisted them up enough to get his hand underneath.

"Hey, don't forget we're in public," Sil whispered. "And under a bit of scrutiny, might I add."

"Of course. _I_ have no plans of doing anything that could get us in trouble." His had drifted higher up Sil's leg. "Do you?"

Sil bit his lip and tried to keep reading, but Divayth was having fun trying harder and harder to break his focus, and winning. Finally, Sil gave in and discreetly placed a gentle kiss on Divayth's neck.

Not discreetly enough, apparently. The librarian platform was back in front of them in seconds.

"Have you two forgotten that you are roommates?" the librarian hissed. "Perhaps you should continue your _studies_ in your dormitory. Off you go." He waved them away.

They exited the pocket realm and crossed the island back to the College in near-silence. Sil was a little disappointed that his study session had gone so poorly, especially considering that the two of them rarely ever left their room except to go to class, and the one time they did, they were sent back.

But on the other hand, the circumstances had him dying to get back to the dorms.

"Babe? Are you mad at me?" Divayth finally asked from a few steps behind him.

"No, it's not your fault. That librarian would have found some reason to be rid of us sooner or later."

"You sure?" He was now jogging to keep up. "I know I'm short, but you're walking especially fast."

Sil slowed down. "Sorry," he said with a slightly embarrassed smile. "I suppose you could say I'm a bit...frustrated."

"I see," Divayth said quietly.

They wasted no time upon arriving. As soon as they were inside the room, Sil had Divayth pinned to the wall. As soon as the door was closed, a pile of clothes was forming at their feet. A few more seconds, and Sil had readied a barrier, lifted Divayth's legs and wrapped them around his waist. Divayth's moan when Sil entered him was unguarded and _loud_.

"Careful, my dear," Sil whispered into his neck as he pulled back painstakingly slowly. "We don't want to be kicked out of the dorms too."

"I can't help it," Divayth breathed.

"No? Then we'll need to find another solution. How's this?" He directed Divayth's lips to his own as he went back in, letting him moan into his mouth, and leaving his own in exchange.

It was a satisfying solution, and they continued like that until Divayth needed to break away for air. He turned his head to breathe, and Sil's lips trailed along his jaw and down his neck, eliciting some soft whines.

"Careful, now," Sil warned.

"I'm being quiet," Divayth said defiantly.

"Are you?" He thrust once, fast and hard, causing Divayth to make a noise that was close to a shout. He put a finger to Divayth's lips and turned his face forward. "It doesn't sound like it."

Now Divayth could see the devious look in Sil's eyes. "You did that on purpose!"

Sil giggled and turned Divayth's head to the side again so that he could kiss another path along his jaw and to his ear, where he whispered, "I have no idea what you're talking about. But, in theory, one _might_ interpret it as payback for you sticking your hand up my robes and cutting my studies short."

Divayth laughed. "That's fair, I suppose."

They picked back up in a normal rhythm, with Sil insistently keeping Divayth's lips against his, but making sure he had room to breathe. And in return, Divayth fed him a symphony, singing his pleasure for Sil to swallow and beg for more.

"Noisy today, aren't you?" Sil teased, barely moving his lips away to speak.

Divayth hummed in response.

"Though I love to see you squirm like this, I do wish we had a little more privacy. I would love to see you really scream."

" _Fuck_ ," was the whole of Divayth's response, until he came up with an idea. "You could cast silence."

"Where's the fun in that?"

"Where's the fun in watching me come completely undone while you fuck me senseless without having to worry about bothering the neighbors?"

Sil bit his lip. "When you put it that way, you have a point." He returned to the kiss for another few seconds, and then pulled away, gently pulling Divayth's lip with him. "Let's move to the bed, then."

Divayth went to hop down, but Sil stopped him. Instead, keeping Divayth's legs around his waist, he carried him over to the bed—beds, technically, but they had pushed them together when they had started consistently sleeping together—carefully levitated them up, and then lowered back down a little less carefully. Divayth's sharp exhale when they landed was cut off in the middle by Sil's silence spell. Divayth blinked at the sudden, yet expected, change.

"Tap me if you need my attention, okay?" Sil asked.

Divayth nodded and then looked at Sil with a wicked smile and mouthed, " _Now make me scream._ "

Sil gladly took up the challenge. His hips worked up to a fierce rhythm while his hands toured the whole of his partner's body. One hand landed on Divayth's hip as an anchor. The other came up to brush his own hair out of the way, and then back down. Starting at Divayth's mouth, he brushed a thumb along his lips, traveled back and down to his neck, shoulders, chest, while the other hand came up, hips, waist, chest. His hands rested there softly for a moment, feeling the movement in his chest and imagining the corresponding sounds. He didn't delay long, his fingers now swirling around his boyfriend's nipples, soon supplemented by his mouth.

Then his mouth forged a path upward. This was no time for being gentle; they could heal any marks later. And there would definitely be marks. Sil saw to that as he bit and sucked his way to Divayth's neck. One hand found Divayth's hair and gripped it tight, turning his head to expose more neck. He made use of all the surface he could reach, alternating between soft kisses and rough sucking, relishing the vibration of Divayth's vocal cords against his lips, even if their effects vanished before they could be heard.

The other hand slid back down toward Divayth's hip while the first was making its ascent, but the mer intercepted it and redirected it to play a more active role that quickly had him melting under the touch. His hips bucked reflexively but were held down by the firm press of the same hand that was causing the reaction, while his panting and moaning morphed into something that felt more like yelping and, indeed, screaming. His fingernails dug into Sil's skin, drawing lines along his back while he struggled to keep himself grounded as waves of sensation flowed relentlessly through his core.

Finally, Divayth pulled Sil's face to his and kissed him deeply, or as deeply as he could while having to break every few seconds to catch his breath. He tapped Sil's lower hand to get him to slow down and ultimately stop; he'd had enough screaming for now.

The hand shifted to his back to act as support for Sil as he too finished. His body tensed and he broke their lips apart, and released with a deep moan that was much louder than anticipated.

He barely had a moment to come down from the orgasm before he opened his eyes to see Divayth looking at him with raised eyebrows and a smirk. He almost didn't want to un-silence him, knowing that he'd never be allowed to live that down. But he rolled to the side and removed the spell, and the onslaught began immediately.

"Oh, _I'm_ the noisy one?" Divayth asked, being sure to keep his voice down. He pushed Sil onto his back, climbed on top of him, and began kissing him mercilessly. "Serjo In-Control here thinks he can tease me, but he can't even orgasm quietly," he murmured between kisses.

Sil giggled under the weight of the attack while he tried to keep up with the kisses. When Divayth finally relented, Sil sighed and lazily wrapped his arms around his waist. "You could take it as a compliment, you know," he said.

"Oh, I do. Don't you worry," Divayth said, booping him on the nose. "But I'm still going to tease you." He brought their lips together in a long, calming kiss, and then rolled to the side.

"Teasing aside, though, that was hot as fuck," he added.

"Yeah?" Sil asked, propping himself up on one arm. "And you haven't even seen your neck yet." His fingers lightly traced the well-marked path his mouth had left.

"Is it that bad?"

"Depends what you call 'bad,'" Sil said coyly. "You may want at least some of it healed before going out in public, if that's what you're asking."

Divayth waved over a mirror and assessed the damage for himself. "Mephala's webs, Sil. You're absolutely ruthless," he whispered.

Sil was afraid for a moment that he might have gone too far, but Divayth noticed his worry and added, " _And_ hot as fuck."

Sil smiled and rolled onto his stomach. "Speaking of webs, did you leave any interesting designs?"

Divayth's fingertips traveled lightly over their handiwork. "Not unless you consider long lines to be interesting. Want me to heal them?"

"Not now." Sil rolled back onto his side, took the mirror and tossed it away (carefully, casting telekinesis to make sure it landed safely), and pulled Divayth to him. Their lips met and melted together, and their bodies followed in a natural embrace, coiling together, still infused with the intimacy of the moment. There they spent the rest of their Sundas afternoon: not in the library, but wrapped up in each other's selves. It was a better outcome than either of them had hoped for.


	9. Telepathic Projection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys learn telepathic projection.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a While but I hope you enjoy this fix of Psijic lore with the occasional kissing.

A nervous excitement buzzed through the students as they waited for Professor Aranquen to begin the Projection lecture. The scheduled lesson for the day was a topic that every new Psijic eagerly awaited—in fact, there was a running joke that the wait was simply a test of temperance, a virtue of great value to the Psijic Order. This was not true, of course. The real reason was that the topic was undergirded by a great many more basic topics that needed to be mastered first. If anything, the wait was not long enough. There had been several movements throughout the history of the College to move the lesson to the second or even third year. All such attempts had failed, however, and so the eager first-year students sat in anticipation for their professor to finally teach them the basics of telepathic projection.

The beginning of the lecture went about as well as could be expected. It did not take her mastery of Psijic magic for Aranquen to notice that no one could focus while she held the usual review of the previous lecture’s material, and so she wrapped it up early and moved onto the material they were all waiting for.

“Before anything else, you must learn how to identify a person on the projected plane,” Aranquen explained to her eager students. “The way we do this is using what we call a ‘Psijic handshake,’ after the practice some cultures have of shaking hands in greeting. You will already be familiar with this from the various runes throughout campus that we use for identification.”

She turned to the student closest to her. “Sidanwe, would you help me demonstrate? I will touch your palm with a small burst of magicka, and then you will do the same to me. Try to find the signature in the magicka that is unique to me, in the same way that you might identify the residue left by a spell.”

Sidanwe cautiously reached out a hand. Aranquen touched her palm with the faint but unmistakable glow of magicka, and Sidanwe did the same in return.

“Simple as that,” Aranquen said with a smile. “Did you recognize my signature?”

“I…I think so,” Sidanwe said in a small voice.

“Good,” Aranquen turned back to the class. “Practice with each other now.”

After a few minutes of allowing the class to practice, the professor continued instructing.

“Telepathic projection can be uncomfortably intimate,” she said. “When you are just learning, it will be difficult to control what you are sending or receiving. You will effectively be granting your partner unrestricted access to your thoughts, or requesting access to theirs. As such, I will not be asking you to practice projecting to one another.”

There was an audible sigh of relief throughout the classroom.

“I would, however, encourage you to practice with trusted friends outside of class.”

Divayth turned to Sil and subtly raised his eyebrows in a question. Sil responded with a nervous smile and nod. The whole idea was nerve-wracking, but there was certainly no one he trusted more.

“The same principles of projection that you have been learning about all year underpin this technique,” Aranquen explained. “As always, we make use of the projected plane to effect change in the physical plane. In this case, you will be using the projected plane to locate a target and communicate over arbitrarily large distances.” She drew diagrams in the air made of glowing magicka as she spoke. "When you locate your target, use your Motions for conveyance and send out a process—a projection, if you will—to nudge at their mind. They will feel it. That is why it is as important to share your signature as it is to have theirs: it lets them know with confidence who is contacting them. Once you make contact, the recipient will need to reach out and accept the nudge. We find that even non-Psijics tend to know to do this instinctively, though it may take practice to get it efficiently.

“Once they accept the nudge and join your projection with their consciousness, you can send or receive your thoughts through the projection. The direction will be something that you define when you create the projection. To begin with, you should choose either sending or receiving information, but as you become more skilled, you will be able to do both at once.”

She went into more detail on the technical aspects, drawing more diagrams in the air. She occasionally dissipated an old diagram, but for the most part, she just floated around the front of the lecture hall, making use of all available space. By the time she was done explaining, the room was full of magical floating diagrams and notes.

“Remember that when you start, your biggest challenge will be controlling the bandwidth of information. Projection is not like speaking, where your message is contained in discrete units in limited modality. As I said earlier, your first telepathic projections will contain your unfiltered thoughts. Information will flow freely, much like a process of diffusion. This can make the sender feel exposed and be overwhelming for the recipient. You will need to focus in order to limit it to certain senses and tune out others, or turn off sensory information altogether and pass only your most superficial thought-voice, as you see fit. The same goes for when you are requesting information, although depending on your partner, they may be able to control what they are sending.”

By now, the buzz had subsided, and the students were floating around the lecture hall in their levitating seats, diligently copying down the notes. Having adequately satisfied their curiosity, Aranquen decided to end the lecture there and allow them to practice on their own before their next lesson.

* * *

“So, do you want to try it?” Divayth asked when they were back in their dorm.

“Yeah,” Sil said with the same nervous smile from earlier, but his voice wavered.

He hopped up onto the bed, motioning for Divayth to sit with him. When they were situated, he cautiously held out a hand for the Psijic handshake.

“You seem hesitant,” Divayth said. “We don’t have to, of course.”

“No, it’s fine. I just, um,” he lowered his hand partway. “I’m just a little nervous, I suppose.”

“Of sharing our thoughts?”

“Of…being overwhelmed, mostly.”

Divayth’s expression went from cautious curiosity to gentle comfort as he began to understand. “You do get overwhelmed by your senses sometimes, don’t you?”

He nodded. “My whole brain is different. I want to try, but I don’t really know what to expect.”

“Have you talked to any of the professors? Maybe there’s someone whose brain is like yours.”

“I wouldn’t know who to ask.”

“Hm.” Divayth gave a brief understanding nod, and then a soft smile. “Well, you can expect me to be here with you, for one.”

Sil returned the smile. “That does help, truly.”

“Then, let’s try to figure this out,” Divayth said. “Is it receiving a projection that is likely to be overwhelming?”

“Mostly, yes. I assume the incoming sensory information will be added to my own, which is hard enough to keep in check as it is.”

“What happens when you get overwhelmed?”

“It becomes hard to process any of the stimuli, hard to talk or understand people, and sometimes I just shut down and block everything out.”

“Is there anything I can do to help you if that happens?”

Sil thought about it for a moment. “Break the connection, first and foremost. Don’t touch me unless I ask you to. Ask direct questions, and give me time to respond. I might not use full sentences, or words at all.”

“Understood,” Divayth said. “What about sending? Should that be easier?”

Sil hesitated. “Easier, yes.”

Divayth gave him a questioning look. “But?”

“I don’t know…” He gave an embarrassed smile. “What if you think it’s weird?”

“What if I think what is weird?”

He shrugged. “How my brain works.”

“Why would I think that?”

“Because it is weird, objectively.”

Divayth laughed. “Okay, then why are you worried? I already know you.”

“I know, but—” He took a moment to put words together. “What if you haven’t realized just how weird it is?”

“Then you’ll show me, I should think,” Divayth said simply.

“But what if it’s just too unbearably weird?”

Divayth’s expression softened again as he realized how much of a concern this was to Sil. He took Sil’s hand, watching carefully for any signs of reluctance. “Are you worried that it could somehow affect our relationship?”

Sil shrugged and nodded, his eyes revealing the deep sincerity and worry coming to the surface.

Divayth brought his free hand under Sil’s chin, and leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips.

“Babe,” he said in an equally soft voice, “I really like you. And I like us. And I know and trust that you feel the same. Even if, by some stretch of the imagination, your mind is totally incomprehensible to me, that won’t change anything. I don’t need your brain wiring to match mine in order to validate what I already know about us.”

Relief spread slowly across Sil’s face. “Thanks,” he whispered.

“Hey, I wonder what it would be like to kiss while we’re projecting!”

Sil laughed. “We should try it.”

“Only if you’d like.”

“I would.”

Divayth smiled. “Excellent.”

The first few attempts were rocky. They decided that it would be best for Sil to project first, just in case he should become overwhelmed by being on the receiving end. Despite having the same general principles as any kind of projection, as their professor had explained, this type of projection had a level of difficulty they had not experienced since they were first learning the fundamentals. Locating the target was easy enough, but creating the projection was another thing entirely.

Sil started by trying to weave a projection out of his thoughts themselves. The results were brittle and static, the connections forming in a small burst only to fizzle out instantly. He only progress when he realized that he should be treating the projection like a conduit rather than focusing on the content. The specific thoughts to be transferred were irrelevant; his job was to create a passage through which they could flow. His stomach leapt when he finally created a stable process and felt Divayth take hold.

“Oh, this  _is_  weird,” Divayth said as Sil’s thoughts began to flow into his mind.

_Sorry, should I break the connection?_  Sil went to say.

“No, no! I meant it’s weird to have two minds at once,” Divayth responded.

“Oh,” Sil said, realizing Divayth had heard his planned words before he could speak them. “That is weird.”

Sil wondered how Divayth was finding the strangeness of his mind.

“It’s interesting. Different. I can see how you’d get overwhelmed.” He paused. It felt as if the world was just  _more_ : brighter and louder and sharper and softer. “Yep, definitely a little overwhelming.”

“Should I break it now?”

“Kiss me first.”

Sil laughed warmly and kissed his boyfriend.

Divayth could feel the kiss from both perspectives: Sil’s lips on his, and his lips on Sil’s, both of their emotions coalescing in his mind. He giggled. “It’s like twice the kiss!” Still, he breathed a sigh of relief when Sil broke the connection.

They took a moment to collect themselves before trying the projection in the other direction. This type of projection turned out to be significantly more taxing than any other they had tried before, especially for the sender. Sil knew he would need to regain as much energy as possible if he was going to be able to withstand more stimuli without shutting down.

Even after their breather, creating a viable projection proved as difficult for Divayth as it had been for Sil. After a few attempts, however, Sil felt the nudge and integrated it with his consciousness, and the connection was opened.

The incoming visual information was the first thing Sil noticed. There was so much of it, and it was hard to keep separate from his own. He instinctively turned his head, expecting the image to change, and was disoriented when it did not. He clamped his eyes shut to block out one of the inputs.

_You okay?_  Divayth wondered.

Sil nodded. “Vision is weird. Oh…” He paused as his voice reverberated through his senses. “Sound is…very weird…hard to talk…”

Divayth wondered if he should break the connection.

“Not yet,” Sil responded with some effort.

Divayth nodded in agreement, and then realized that Sil would not have seen him nod. He went to say something, but noticed Sil’s smile and realized he had, in fact, seen the nod through his own eyes, and sensed the subsequent corrective thought process.

Sil slowly grew more accustomed to the stimuli. He could feel all the seams of Divayth’s robes, and none of them were aligned evenly. He wanted to wiggle to get them in the right place, but he knew it would not do any good.

“How do you just wear clothes like that?” he asked.

“Would you prefer if I took them off…?”

Sil could feel Divayth’s smirk, and matched it with his own. “Maybe when I can see again.”

They spent a few more seconds getting used to the feeling, and then they kissed and broke the connection. Sil pressed his forehead against Divayth’s and sat that way for several breaths, recalibrating his senses.

“How are you feeling?” Divayth asked softly after Sil sat back and opened his eyes.

Sil considered and responded, “Within the expected range of discomfort, but on the lighter end.”

“That’s good, I hope?”

Sil smiled and nodded. “Talking…will be hard for now, still.”

“Understood.”

“Touch is good.” He picked up Divayth’s arm and wrapped it around him, moving into the embrace and nuzzling his face into Divayth’s neck. Divayth got the message and wrapped his other arm around Sil as well with a soft chuckle.

“How was it?” Sil mumbled, his head still against Divayth.

“Your brain?”

Sil nodded.

“Interesting. Comprehensible, if you’re still worried about that.”

“I can try to make it less overwhelming.”

Divayth shrugged carefully, trying not to disturb the mer nuzzled against him. “Perhaps, but don’t filter out too much. I want to be able to understand you better.” He kissed the top of Sil’s head. “And, hey. Thanks for letting me in.”

Sil couldn’t come up with an appropriate verbal response, and so he nuzzled further into his partner’s embrace. He kept pushing until they were both lying back on the bed, giggling.

“Time to rest, I think,” Sil said.


End file.
